Mayor Menino Endorses School Closings

11:25

December 14, 2010

On Wednesday night, the Boston school committee will vote on a controversial plan by Superintendent Carol Johnson to close nine schools and merge another eight.

Mayor Thomas Menino speaks at the Project Hope Community Building in Roxbury in this May 2009 file photo. (AP)

The plan is not popular among many parents and teachers. But the school system is facing a $63 million budget gap, and backers of the closure plan say the closings would save money by eliminating about a quarter of the 5,600 empty school seats scattered throughout Boston.

Mayor Thomas Menino has been one of the plan's most important supporters. At a speech to the Boston Chamber of Commerce on Monday, he said the restructuring is critical to student achievement.

We'll get latest on the school closure plan and the mayor's support for it.

Guests:

Richard Stutman, president, Boston Teachers Union
Curt Nickisch, WBUR reporter

This program aired on December 14, 2010.