A Boston city councilor backed by the mayor this past election canceled a hearing he was chairing on a push from two of his colleagues looking to expand a mayoral initiative that waives museum fees for BPS students to include all schoolchildren.
The office of Councilor Henry Santana, who previously worked for the mayor, sent an email to the office of Councilor Ed Flynn Friday night, saying that the March 18 committee hearing was canceled because Santana wanted more time to study data that the mayor’s office has been collecting during the pilot phase of BPS Sundays.
Flynn and Councilor Erin Murphy, who co-sponsored a resolution seeking an expansion, said they were blindsided by the cancellation, which came about a week after the mayor’s former campaign aide Councilor Sharon Durkan objected to their call for an immediate vote on the measure, automatically sending it to committee.
“It’s disappointing,” Flynn said of the cancellation. “I think parents and students alike asked for equal access to museums and these cultural institutions. It’s important that we put politics aside and provide every family the same opportunity.”
Flynn and Murphy said they had not spoken with Santana as of Saturday evening about the change in schedule. The cancellation notice was received by the city clerk shortly before 5:30 p.m. Friday, and posted publicly with no explanation.
“I was looking forward to the hearing and talking with my colleagues on how to expand this program,” Murphy said. “That’s a great opportunity, but I’ve been very open and vocal since the beginning that I don’t think we should only be offering this to students who attend BPS.”
She said the lack of communication from the chair was “concerning.”
Flynn and Murphy have been critical of the mayor’s decision to exclude non-Boston Public Schools students from the program since it was announced in her state of the city address in late January.
They have characterized their resolution as a chance to rectify the unfair exclusion of many low-income and minority families whose students attend charter, parochial or private schools or take part in the METCO program, and can’t afford the cost of a museum visit.
Flynn and Murphy filed a 17F request last week, sent to the Wu administration by the Council with a 7-day deadline, for data around how the program is being funded — between APRA and philanthropic funds — and how many students have participated so far, which the mayor said two weeks in was about 2,500 families.
Mayor Michelle Wu told the Herald last week that the funding isn’t there to expand the $1 million program during the seven-month pilot period that extends through August, stating her decision to keep it open to only BPS students was based on the finances of the participating institutions, rather than any political motivations.
She said her administration will be considering other factors beyond expanding participation to non-BPS students after the pilot phase, such as whether to waive fees on a different day in the realm of providing better access to families.
“It’s all going to be on the table as they really carefully listen to families and measure and see what the numbers tell us over the course of the seven months,” Wu said at the time.
Her office did not respond to a request for comment on Saturday. Flynn said he believes the funding is there and he and Murphy maintain that they are pushing for an immediate expansion during the pilot phase.
A spokesperson for Santana said the councilor supports an expansion of the program, but that he wants it to run for a few more Sundays to have a better sense of the data, in addition to the first few weeks covered by the 17F, before holding a hearing. He has picked a potential hearing date, which wasn’t disclosed.
Santana said in a statement that while he appreciates his colleagues’ “thoughtful requests” for information about the first three Sundays, “I’m a big believer in utilizing data in the council’s work.”
“And we’ll be in a better position to understand how the program is being utilized and to discuss how it could be expanded once the pilot program has been running for more than a few Sundays, and we have more data available,” he said.
