What happens when you give leftists everything they want? That’s a trick question. They never get everything they want, because if you give them everything they say they want, they’ll always come up with something more to want. They are never satisfied. I think the word “greed” applies here.
Case in point: let’s go to one of the bluest states in the nation and check in on a lawsuit that alleges racism in the way school district borders impact minority students. While the issue at the center of the Massachusetts case is pretty simple, the framing of it all will likely get complex.
A group of minor children are suing the Massachusetts Department of Education, the Massachusetts Board of Education, and several educational leaders in state government. Since the kids are too young to even comprehend why they are suing the state, their “next friends” are signed onto the complaint. Typically, in legal terms, if you’re a minor your “next friend” could be your parent or someone else with certain guardianship responsibilities.
See what I mean? The left is already making it complicated, and I haven’t even told you what this is all about yet.
So, let’s get to that. These kids are suing the state because their lawyers maintain they are being denied a better education because of where they live. Most, if not all, of them live within the boundaries of the Boston Public Schools district. But they’re not asking to be given the opportunity to go to another school within their district. They’re not asking for more money, resources, or staffing for their own school district.
Instead, they want to be able to go outside of their school district into the better neighboring school districts in the suburbs. They want to essentially erase the geographic borders that separate the city from the suburbs.
It’s as simple as that. If I’m that eight-year-old minority child in the Boston Public Schools district who is a party to this lawsuit, I don’t want to go to school where I live in the city. I want to go to school where you live if you live in the suburbs. And if I don’t get what the adults in my life tell me that I want, then you’re a racist.
That’s about as simple as this will get.
Now, for some much-needed background. The operating budget for Boston Public Schools in this current year is roughly $1.6 billion. This is spent to educate more than 50,000 students, which translates into about $31,000 spent on each student each year. This cost is comparable to sending your kid to a private school and paying $31,000 per year in tuition. Only in this case, you’re not footing the bill; the Boston taxpayers are.
So, what does that mean to academic performance?
The high school graduation rate is 81%, higher than before, but lower than the state average of 89%. Boston students’ dropout rates are higher than the state average. The district’s test scores in reading and math are lower than the state average. And roughly 50-60% of high school students go on to college.
One thing to keep in mind on those graduation rates, particularly in public schools: just about anyone who goes to class graduates and does so on time. Almost no one fails a grade and has to repeat it, regardless of academic performance.
Compare this to the same data points for the public schools in Brookline, Mass. Their graduation rate is almost 97%. Test scores across the board are higher than the state averages. And the cost per student is cheaper than Boston’s – about $27,000 per student, per year. Roughly 85-90% of Brookline’s high school seniors go on to college.
Just based on these statistics, you can’t say the reason Boston students underperform is because not enough money or resources have been made available to them. You can’t say that the teachers are underpaid, since they are members of the biggest teachers’ unions.
Not captured in the educational data is that it’s more likely that kids in the suburbs come from two-parent homes, where at least one of them is working. By every measure, the suburbs offer a higher quality of life, and this includes education, but not because of geographic location, or taxpayer-funding of institutions. It’s because the nuclear family still thrives in these places.
Needless to say, the lawyers suing Massachusetts contend that the state is at fault. It is forcing minority children to go to school where they live, which had been the standard nationwide until one minute ago. And because of where they live, borders are the problem. Racially segregated neighborhoods lead to racially segregated school districts “characterized by concentrated poverty that deny black and Hispanic students an adequate and equal education.”
The suburban school districts that ring Boston, and which are mentioned in the suit, include Brookline, Newton, Andover, North Andover, and Needham.
By maintaining discriminatory district lines and school assignment policies that prioritize municipal boundaries over equal access to educational opportunities, the Commonwealth has codified segregation into its educational system and structure…
Massachusetts’ district lines and school assignment policies foster and maintain segregation, with scant opportunities for students to attend schools beyond those boundaries. Even where Black and Latino schoolchildren live just a stone’s throw away from higher-performing, lower-poverty school districts, the Commonwealth’s district lines and school assignment policies deprive these students of the educational opportunities that the State concentrates in predominantly white school districts, the lawsuit states.
Before letting all of this get your blood a boiling, remember that this is Massachusetts. This is the home state of the Kennedys. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) represents the state now. It should be a leftist utopia, right?
According to the Washington Free Beacon, three of those Boston suburbs – Brookline, Newton, and Needham – voted 75-85% for Kamala Harris in 2024.
Isn’t it interesting that in a state dominated by Democrats for many decades, somehow it is the target of a lawsuit alleging racism in education? Feels like poetic justice.
Or, as the Free Beacon said, “There’s something at least mildly ironic about (Gov. Maura) Healey’s administration now facing a court complaint alleging her state’s schools are the site of ‘profound segregation—created and perpetuated by the Commonwealth’s discriminatory district lines and school assignment policies.’”
The Free Beacon contacted the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, and it received this statement from spokeswoman Jacqueline Reis:
The Department of Elementary and Secondary Education believes that all students, no matter their income level, race/ethnicity, language, or disability, deserve schools where they are known, valued, and have the support they need to succeed. Massachusetts leads the nation in student achievement, and we are committed to building on this progress to strengthen our education system for every student in our state.
Did you see what she did there? She said students “deserve schools where they are known.” In other words, stay put. You don’t need to leave your community for a better education. While this may make sense to most conservatives in red states, it’s a major departure from leftist thinking going all the way back to the 1960s when controversies erupted over school busing proposals. But now the libs are coming to the defense of borders and border integrity.
Anytime you see a case like this, it feels like a one-off, and it seems crazy. But history has taught conservatives that once you see the left push something crazy, it’s usually just the first shot across the bow. There’s more coming, and the left has already mapped out a long-term strategy.
In this case, that strategy means erasing municipal borders so that the left’s base can get what you have, perhaps what you have built in your community, all without having to work the way you did to get it. They’re entitled; you’re obligated. That’s how it works.
If this lawsuit were happening in Alabama, you can bet the left would be all over it, accusing suburban working-class families of being rich racists. But since this dispute is in a leftist cradle, all those leftist politicians and the media are uncharacteristically quiet for a case that centers on allegations of racism.
Could it be that Massachusetts leftists don’t mean it when they promote “equity”? Could it be that when it affects them, we find that there is a double standard at play?
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