Tito Jackson Invites Protesting Students to City Hall

Photo via AP

On the eve of another walkout over budget cuts, Tito Jackson has invited protesting Boston Public Schools students to his committee meeting at City Hall, in what is a slowly developing proxy war between the city councilor and Mayor Marty Walsh.

Students have planned a walkout Tuesday at 1 p.m. to protest Walsh’s $1 billion budget, which made cuts to special education resources in order to shore up a $30 million shortfall.

“They have not provided the proper resources for young people to learn, to have librarians, to not have smaller class sizes for autistic students, to support trauma students,” Jackson told the Herald. “In real terms, that is a huge cut, and they know it.”

Walsh remains skeptical that the demonstrations are wholly student organized, telling the Herald it “seems like there’s adults behind this situation.”

“They need to start acting like adults and work through the process,” he said, adding that he hopes these adults “don’t put the kids at risk.”

The last time a walkout was staged, more than 2,000 BPS students flooded Beacon Hill before preceding to Faneuil Hall, where they heckled Walsh, who had just finished announcing Boston as the host of Forbes magazine’s “30 Under 30” conference later this year.

“I’d love to see who’s behind the walkout,” a perturbed Walsh told the Globe in March. “Whoever’s behind it, I hope they start to feed the young students in our city with accurate information and not misguided information.”

Though the first BPS walkout was promoted by two groups with union ties, Boston Education Justice Alliance and the Alliance to Reclaim Our Schools, the demonstration was organized by a group of teenagers at BPS.