Stand video airs on LTC
Tune into LTC Channel 8 tomorrow night at 5:00 pm or Wednesday at 4:00 pm to see the video from the April 25 Stand for Children Rally at the State House. There is excellent footage of Stand Lowell activists having in-depth conversations with Representatives Kevin Murphy and Dave Nangle, as well as Governor Deval Patrick addressing the crowd on Boston Common. Interestingly, both reps admit on camera to supporting the Governor’s Municipal Partnership Act as a way to bring needed revenue to Lowell without further burdening property owners, although both also question whether the added revenue will go to the schools. As you may recall, since the interviews on April 25, the City Manager restored $800k in funding for the schools (from his original plan to cut $1.6 million) in the hope that the state would be able to deliver more revenue through the governor’s plan. Now if only our representatives can use their influence with House leadership… (Speaker Sal DeMasi does not support the plan.)
At the rally, Governor Patrick sums it up when he talks about his personal understanding of how education can transform a life and how even with his increase funding for education, “it’s not enough.” I also thought there was an interesting exchange between Rep. Kevin Murphy, who was praising the Lowell Schools and his own son’s very positive experiences, and Stand speaker Gabrielle, who made the point that she wasn’t really worried about her own children, that they were at the top of their elementary class. “But what about the others who are failing?” she asked, “What about the dropout rate at the high school; that doesn’t come from nowhere.” There is an achievement gap between cities and suburbs, but also between children in Lowell: those who start life with all the advantages and do well in the urban school system, plus benefiting from the diversity of the schools— and those who never catch up, who fail and dropout. Yes, we need parent involvement, but we can’t just throw away the kids whose parents are not, for whatever reason, involved. We need community involvement to close this gap, and as Deval Patrick pointed out: “The property tax as a basis for closing the gap is not working.”
Stand for Children lobbied hard to get the $6.2 million increase in local aid to Lowell schools in the spring, and they were instrumental in getting the city council to compromise with the school committee on the budget cuts. Now they are working to raise awareness of the need for alternative revenue sources to get cities and towns out of the trap of either continuing to raise property taxes or cutting essential programs. Watch the video to learn more about Stand for Children and to see firsthand how grassroots advocacy leads to public awareness and positive actions.