It’s very easy to wish students, teachers, and school administrators a good school year – “try hard”, “think of the future”, “set high standards”, and so on.  But those are meaningless generalities, especially when applied to education.

     So let’s start with a few, specific positives.  First and foremost, you students in Boston and all across Massachusetts are to be congratulated for your response to MCAS testing.  About 90% of you passed last year, and the results are getting better.  There are many who are against MCAS testing, but it has resulted in standards in two very important schools subjects – literacy and numeracy.  High standards count.  Among the 50 states, Massachusetts is near the top in setting effective educational standards.  For this, we can thank John Silber and David Driscoll, the current Education Commissioner.

     Take a look at the job opportunities in and around Boston.  Finance, medicine, high technology, advanced education, and hospitality/tourism are the growth occupations here.  There are entry-level jobs in many of these occupations, but if you would like to move ahead, you must know how to speak and write well, read intelligently, use computers and numbers skillfully, and possess a good working attitude.  That means that you must get yourself an education based upon high standards and hard work.  There’s no substitute.

     Teachers are for the most part dedicated to their profession.  They put in extra time – a little here, a little there, which really adds up.  Also, teachers spend their own money on classroom supplies.  An NEA report of a few years ago said that the nationwide average is an out-of-pocket $400 per teacher – a real sacrifice.  South Boston Online has no idea what teachers in Boston spend.  Does anyone out there know?  Please tell us, so we can give our teachers credit where it’s due.

     Here’s one remedy for school supply shortages.  There is one overhead employee for every teacher in the Boston school system.  It should be more like one overhead employee for every two teachers.  Simply cut out some overheads.  For the sakes of our kids and their educations, eliminate “make-work” and patronage jobs and use the money on supplies.  Other organizations do it all the time.  And as a message to those administrators who remain on the job – back up your teachers, especially when student behavior is out of line.

     And here’s another remedy.  South Boston Online has pointed out before that the City of Boston wastes $30 million per year on unnecessary forced busing.  That would buy a lot of books and supplies.  Do any of our elected officials have the courage to stop that wastage?  We wonder.

     And by the way, it is Boston’s upper grades, from eighth to Senior in high school, which need the most improvement.  Actually, both Boston and America have strong elementary schools.  It’s in the secondary schools (middle and high schools) that we fall short – badly short, compared to the rest if the world.  Forget, at least for the time being, costly additional programs like pre-school.  What good will they do, when so many of our high schools are inferior?

     The issue of charter schools has become far too politicized.  Put aside all those “studies” of charter schools and recall something that is far more basic:  parents have fundamental and inalienable duties and rights (yes, rights!) to raise their children as they, the parents, see fit.  Those rights include choosing the way their children are educated.  Increasingly, parents are choosing charter schools.  To local politicians and teachers unions – please get out of the way of this trend.  Choice of schools belongs to parents.  Period.

     Back to student achievement.  The September 3 issue of the Boston (Sunday) Globe published an article from “Teens in Print” (T.i.P.) describing how the Boston Student Advisory Committee (BSAC) negotiated an end to the policy of locking out tardy students.  Good going, young people!  You have succeeded in eliminating one of the silliest bureaucratic rules ever to come down the pike.

     South Boston Online would like to suggest another target to the BSAC:  the ridiculously early starting times in Boston schools.  Start a campaign to begin classes no earlier than 9 a.m.  Actually, a 9:30 start would be preferable.  Studies show that this change would do more to improve your educations than anything else, including smaller class sizes.

     But whatever you do as students, please don’t ever forget that your education is mostly up to you.  That’s an enormous challenge, which you have handled very well so far.  Leave the flip-flops, the cell phones, and the midriffs home, and start to learn.

     All the best for the 2006-2007 school year.