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	Unintended consequences LAST WEEK, one of the only City Hall observers who wasn’t puzzled by City Council president Michael Flaherty’s decision to strip District Seven councilor Chuck Turner of his chairmanship of the council’s Education Committee suggested that Flaherty did it to get Turner out of the way. "I think he figured that Turner will never be on board with [the neighborhood-schools] issue, so it’s better to marginalize him and keep him outside the process, throwing stones in." If that’s the case, Flaherty’s move is backfiring — big-time. This past Tuesday, the Education Working Group for Equity and Equality (EW/GEE) held a press conference at the 12th Baptist Church, in Roxbury, to demand that Boston’s public schools be improved before any plan limiting parental choice is implemented. EW/GEE draws its membership from groups like the Black Ministerial Alliance, the NAACP, and the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), as well as individuals like State Representative Gloria Fox and former mayoral candidate Mel King. And none other than Turner was the star of the show. Turner attributed recent efforts by Boston politicians like Flaherty and Boston mayor Tom Menino to implement a neighborhood-based school-assignment policy to the spate of parochial-school closings that have forced white parents to consider enrolling their children in the public-school system. He argued that minority communities have fewer "walkable" schools than predominantly white areas of Boston do, and that because of this — and an insufficient number of school seats in neighborhoods like Mattapan and Roxbury — students of color will end up being bused even if a new neighborhood-based plan is created. And he demanded that the quality of education available throughout Boston’s school system be increased before any assignment-plan change is made. "If they move to a neighborhood-schools system, what will be done is to create a system that’s objectively discriminatory," Turner told the crowd. "Because the opportunity for whites is different than the opportunities for people of color." About 160 people — including school superintendent Thomas Payzant and Ted Landsmark, who is leading the 16-member task force to examine the current school-assignment policy — listened as Turner and other EW/GEE members spoke. How many turned out specifically for the press conference is unclear; in a bit of strategic scheduling, the conference was scheduled half an hour before a city-sponsored community forum on the assignment plan. But the crowd responded enthusiastically to Turner’s oratory. Near the end of the press conference, a woman near the makeshift stage called out, "Where’s Mr. Tobin? Why isn’t he here?" — a reference to District Six councilor John Tobin of West Roxbury, who replaced Turner as the council’s new Education Committee chair. As if on cue, another woman hollered back, "The people’s councilor is right here. That’s all we need" — a reference to Turner. A chant — "Stand up for Chuck! Stand up for Chuck!" — began, followed by a standing ovation. Turner sat through it all, nodding with a look of grim purposefulness. If Flaherty was hoping to marginalize Turner on this issue, he may have achieved just the opposite. — AR

SOME HAVE broader concerns. According to Charles Willie, an emeritus professor at Harvard’s Graduate School of Education who co-authored the controlled-choice plan the schools implemented in 1989, a shift toward neighborhood schools would result in de facto segregation (although students of color make up approximately 85 percent of the public-school population, there can be little doubt that a return to neighborhood assignments would result in overwhelmingly white elementary schools in communities like South Boston and West Roxbury). This, Willie asserts, would negatively affect students’ classroom experience and academic performance. "If you go back to neighborhood schools, you’re going to eliminate the diversity in the student body, which we have seen is very helpful to people," Willie says. "Social-science findings have revealed, again and again, that people who go to diversified schools feel comfortable in the presence of people unlike themselves and tend to get jobs in settings that are diversified. And my data ... shows that people in diversified schools have higher average achievement scores."

Right now, the debate is breaking down largely along racial lines — despite the fact that plenty of white parents of Boston public-school students might resent a loss of choice in where they send their children to school, while many parents of color might love the idea of sending their children to school closer to home. All of which means that if the issue isn’t handled with some sensitivity, it could explode. Imagine, for instance, this scenario: in late July, a few days before the 2004 Democratic National Convention begins, thousands of journalists from around the country descend on Boston. Searching for the what’s-up-in-city-X stories that always accompany major political gatherings, a few of them stumble on a Boston Common sit-in led by Councilor Chuck Turner. They see a mass of protesters holding signs that claim Boston’s public-school-assignment system is biased against students of color. The press gets to work. And on the morning of July 26, someone on the West Coast sits down to read about the convention kickoff when another headline catches her attention: 30 YEARS LATER, BOSTON STILL GRAPPLES WITH BUSING.

For now, it’s purely hypothetical. But debate over the possible revamping of Boston’s public-school-assignment plan is getting ugly. If Menino’s lucky, a new school-assignment plan will bring accolades from parents and students of all backgrounds — from rich to poor, from black to white, from Asian to Latino, from Roslindale to Roxbury — and he’ll be hailed for exorcising the busing battles of the 1970s from the city’s soul once and for all. If not, minority students and parents may feel they’ve been resegregated. Activists around Boston will catalogue the flaws of the new plan and the process that created it. The massive media presence the mayor had hoped would help sell Boston to a national audience will become a headache. And with the next mayoral campaign a year away, Menino’s seemingly unassailable hold on the Boston electorate will suddenly look a bit shakier.

For his part, Menino asserts that opposition to a revamped school-assignment plan is anything but broad-based. "You have the same group that goes around trying to say it won’t work," he says. "Boston’s a much different city than it was in 1974. I remember that city. It was a city that was divided racially ... it’s changed. Some people want to argue the history of the past. I want to talk about the Boston of the future."

Suffolk Superior Court clerk magistrate John Nucci, who served as School Committee president in the late 1980s and was an at-large city councilor for much of the 1990s, makes a similar point. "I think everyone assumes, correctly, that we’re pretty much beyond the busing crisis," Nucci says. "I don’t think that a few activists are going to change that whole perception."

Nevertheless, one political observer of the assignment-plan review process warns: "Menino really could get hurt on this if it’s not dealt with in an aboveboard kind of way. And already it’s showing signs of not being that fair."

THAT POLITICAL observer is referring to the widespread belief among parents, political commentators, and some politicians that a new plan already exists. According to this theory, all the community meetings soliciting input are little more than public-relations cover for a decision that’s already been made.

At a school-reassignment-task-force meeting in East Boston, for example, at-large councilor Maura Hennigan asserted that a new student-assignment system had already been devised, a claim Turner makes as well. Menino denies the charge. "They really don’t have a predetermined plan," he says. "That’s why they’re having these community processes.... That’s not true."

But Karen Mapp, the Boston Public Schools’ deputy superintendent for family and community engagement, suggests that while the outcome of the review process may not be a foregone conclusion, it’s not exactly accurate to say that no plan exists. "I think that there’s sort of a scaffolding right now of maybe a couple different models, but in order to really flesh it out and put some meat on the bones, we’ve got to have all the variables, all the information," Mapp says. "This is an attempt to make sure that whatever model ultimately comes out addresses the needs of the community and looks at it from many perspectives, not just one perspective."

Meanwhile, it’s clear that Menino will have a dominant role in whatever scenario eventually unfolds. The members of the Boston School Committee, which will have the final say on what, if any, changes to implement, were appointed by Menino. The members of the task force led by Landsmark were all selected or approved by Menino. Boston Public Schools superintendent Payzant (who couldn’t be reached for comment for this article) was hired by the Menino-appointed School Committee. The city council, which exercises budgetary authority over the schools and could stall the revision of any revised assignment plan, is led by Flaherty, long regarded as a Menino ally.

Landsmark, the man who’s become the public face of the assignment-plan review process, acknowledges that Menino’s State of the City comments might suggest that the outcome of the task force’s work is somewhat predetermined. But Landsmark adds that, as the review process has progressed, he’s received no interference from Menino or top Boston Public Schools officials. "There’s been no pressure from any of them in any direction," he says. "They’ve been really good about just letting the process go forward," adding, "Some of the politics make sense, some of the politics don’t make sense, but they’re always there. But I can say without any doubt the members of the task force have been entirely apolitical and neutral as they have gone out to communities and listened to what parents have to say. And the information that we’re collecting is going to be assessed absolutely objectively and in an apolitical sense."

That may be. But at the end of last Saturday’s community forum in Jamaica Plain, one man stood up and fired a barrage of questions at Landsmark: who’s behind this? Why now? Is a new school-assignment plan already in place? Landmark replied, "Our understanding is that work had begun on this issue, and the work had started to lead to some recommendations. Then the mayor and the School Department realized they couldn’t introduce these recommendations without soliciting input." (In an interview, Landsmark credited Mapp for convincing Menino and the schools to switch gears; Mapp says others were involved as well.)

When another participant suggested that Menino was manipulating the review process behind the scenes, Landsmark, who is usually affable and patient, grew testy. "We didn’t select ourselves. None of us ran for this. None of us asked for this," he retorted. "You can only trust that we want to be your advocates."

He told another skeptic: "You’re free to beat us up if you want. But beating us up is a waste of your time." After the forum, Alison, a thirtysomething African-American woman who didn’t want her last name published, seemed conflicted. "I came here under the impression that a decision had already been made," she said. "But after being here, I want to trust the people on the task force that they really want to listen." Another African-American woman with two children in the Boston Public Schools, who didn’t want her name published, was less measured. "The talk around town, and definitely some of the activity that’s gone on on the council" — i.e., Turner’s ouster — "is influencing people’s opinion of the purpose of these forums," she said. "People are somewhat cynical and skeptical." Ironically, Landsmark’s willingness to lead the review process — he accepted a personal invitation from Menino — may have only increased the conviction of some Bostonians that the fix is already in. Given Landsmark’s undeniable symbolic value, the thinking goes, the mayor must have something to hide. "Some people look at him as a smokescreen," one insider says. "They’ve got the guy who was the target of busing, and there he is pushing a deal that many people feel is already cut and done."

Where all this will lead in the coming months is anybody’s guess. Turner’s decision to play the race card may, in the long run, diminish his credibility. On the other hand, Boston is a majority-minority city in which, to the chagrin of many, the political leadership remains overwhelmingly white. If there’s one thing Menino doesn’t want to do, it’s give Boston’s voters of color the sense that a decision that could affect their children for years to come is being made without their input. The school-assignment task force was supposed to keep that from happening. So far, it doesn’t seem to be working.

Adam Reilly can be reached at areilly[a]phx.com