Michelle Wu details Boston’s goals for education and addresses current issues during the inaugural State of the Schools Oct. 28. The event welcomed Bostonians, school teachers, and government officials.

Boston Mayor Michelle Wu unveiled a sweeping set of citywide goals to a packed audience at the Josiah Quincy Upper School in Chinatown at Boston’s first-ever State of the Schools Address Oct. 28.

The plan included a variety of initiatives aimed at improving equity and student outcomes such as new bilingual programs, investments in athletics and major school building projects.

“This is Boston, and we reject the idea that urban public schools are doomed to do less,” said Wu, whose children attend Boston Public Schools.

Among the initiatives is an expansion of before-and-after-school programming for all students at Boston’s 20 Community Hub Schools, which serve as neighborhood centers in addition to their role as public schools — a model championed by Wu and Boston Public Schools, or BPS.

“Right now, 17% of our schools don’t have before-and-after school programs,” Wu said. “At the 83% of schools that do, many families still can’t afford or access these critical supports because programs don’t accept state vouchers or have enough spots.”

If parents qualify for a voucher, they can use it at the school their child attends. Previously, families who received state childcare vouchers were often unable to use them for before and after school programs operated by BPS.

In addition, Wu announced the launch of Wicked Math, a new initiative to “streamline access” and “deliver a more cohesive math culture citywide,” according to the program’s website.

“We’re creating a culture of excellence at BPS, built on a rigorous foundation and shaped by partnerships connecting young people all across Boston,” Wu said.

A citywide online enrollment platform, Great Starts, will also allow families to register online for the first time, with 10 different language options.

The changes come amid a decline in enrollment in BPS since the pandemic. BPS could lose as many as half of its public schools because of the enrollment cliff, according to a Long-Term Facilities Plan released by BPS in December 2023. The hope is to minimize the number of schools in operation in order to improve the ones that will remain open.

“Parents are not having five kids, they’re having one or two,” Superintendent Mary Skipper said. “We need to adjust based on that so that our resources in our district are not stretched so thin that they do not have an impact.”

Skipper speaks at a podium. The event featured Josiah Upper School students playing instruments, giving speeches and reciting the national anthem. (Margot Murphy)

The conditions of BPS’s school buildings are of particular concern to some. Nearly two-thirds of school buildings in Boston were built before World War II and are in desperate need of repair.

“I teach in a building that is over 100 years old. My students deserve better than that,” said Russell Weiss-Irwin, a BPS middle school teacher, special-ed inclusion specialist at the Sarah Greenwood School and member of the executive board of the Boston Teachers Union. “I think my school is great, but our school building is not.”

A MassINC Policy Center report released this year in partnership with the Worcester Regional Research Bureau noted that 22% of Black and Hispanic students attend schools with “inferior physical conditions” versus only 13% of white students.

“Every Boston child deserves to be learning in a wonderful, beautiful new building like we’re in right now,” Weiss-Irwin said, referring to the Josiah Quincy Upper School, which opened last year. The new school features a 435-seat auditorium, 125-seat black box theater, state-of-the-art media and fitness centers and a cafeteria that seats over 250 students.

The six-story construction project cost $223.6 million, according to the City of Boston.

“My hope for the future of Boston public schools is that more and more of our students — very quickly — are learning in a school like this and not in a school building like mine,” Weiss-Irwin said.

Test scores also have yet to return to pre-pandemic levels, something Skipper said should not be the only marker of success.

“We saw every single grade and every single subgroup in that grade make positive progress,” Skipper said. “That’s what we’ve been looking for.”

At a time when the federal administration has been hostile toward public education and urban school systems, slashing budgets and pulling grants, Wu remained staunch in her commitment to strengthening BPS.

“These next few years won’t be easy, but as we know: Boston doesn’t back down,” Wu said. “As a BPS mom, I’m determined to deliver results not at the usual pace of government — but with the urgency our kids and families feel every day.”

About the Contributors

Laila Guzman Griffin is a first-year journalism and political science combined major, and a staff member at The News, where she primarily covers city issues, politics and design. You can follow her on Instagram @laila_s_gg.

Constantly with her camera, Margot Murphy is a third-year journalism major with a minor in psychology and photo editor of The News. From Peruvian sports stories to performative profiles, Margot dives headfirst into the photojournalism scene. She can’t wait to hone her craft and experiment with photography styles while listening to “Last Son” by David Fleming for the nth time. You can find her on Instagram at @margs.murphy and @murph.photo.