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Political Notes: Hennigan wants to
look into truancy
Allston-Brighton TAB, United States - Oct 29, 2004
Councilor Maura A. Hennigan called
for a hearing during last week's City Council meeting to look into
the issue of truancy after a recent news article pointed out that
the Boston Public Schools was in danger of losing federal funds
to provide free tutoring to 1,300 children after performing below
U.S. standards for attendance.
"This is a major issue," said Hennigan. "1,300 children
in the our public schools are going to lose funding for desperately
needed tutoring. We need to come up with creative solutions to deal
with the issue of truancy since the city's administration reduced
the number of truant officers from 11 in 1999 to six presently.
Our children cannot learn if they are not in school."
One solution may lie with the successful efforts of Chris Troy,
who is the president of the Boston Urban Youth Foundation. In her
order for the hearing, Hennigan called for Tory to testify before
the Education Committee given his organization's success in combating
truancy. BUYF's program, called "Building Future Education
Initiative," aims to improve school attendance and performance
for 250 chronically truant middle school students.
"If we increase male graduation rates by 1 percent, we would
save $1.4 billion in criminal justice costs," said Troy. "I
look forward to testifying at the hearing to explain our program's
success and how we instill greater hope and vision among our youth
people."
Currently, Hennigan's order for a hearing has been referred to the
Boston City Council's Committee on Education where it awaits to
be scheduled. If you have any questions about this order, have a
personal story to tell, or would like to be notified when the hearing
is scheduled, contact Hennigan's office at 617-635-4217 or via e-mail
at: maurah@cityofboston.gov.
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