Why you care - even if you don’t have kids in school:

Our schools represent a third of Cambridge’s municipal budget ($285 of $991M). Whether you’ve got kids in school, or you’re watching your tax bill, or you want better or more services elsewhere, for yourself or your neighbors — you care how well our programs perform.

What’s happening this election cycle:

Last election, we talked about math: The district had removed Algebra from 8th grade in the name of equity, holding back kids who were ready, to cover for their failure to prepare the rest of the class for a course that’s standard across the U.S. (offered in more than 80% of districts). This past term, we reversed that mistake — Algebra is back — and we replaced the Superintendent under whom decisions like this were allowed to persist, with a great new leader. But that was just one example of a larger pattern.For decades, we’ve ignored the basics. We don’t consistently hire and keep great leaders, and we don’t swiftly remove those who don’t meet the bar. We don’t get kids to school on time. We let classrooms descend into chaos — kids standing on desks, throwing laptops, hurting others — in which it’s hard to teach and impossible to learn. And we consistently promote students who haven’t yet mastered all the material for their current grade onto the next higher grade (creating groups in which students' abilities differ by seven grade levels, a span so wide the greatest faculty can't reach them simultaneously.) And then we act surprised when academic achievement is stubbornly anemic across the board - but with students whose families don't have the luxury of supplementing their education outside of school especially far behind. And then we paper over these differences in preparedness and ability between students who can supplement and those who cannot with whatever the new trendy education policy is at the moment, and call it closing the achievement gap.For example: The District eliminated deadlines for homework and attendance requirements at the high school (a program called “Grading For Equity,” now partially reversed but entirely a bad idea). We axed advanced academic tracks in both middle and high school (not just math) and refuse students the materials necessary to work ahead (because that would mean they’re not “aligned” with their peers). The City went into debt to create middle schools (vs. the old K-8 schools) because someone told us it was the “thing to do” in education at the time, to close achievement gaps (it didn’t). And we tolerate faculty with race-based rules about who speaks first in class - to “disrupt entrenched power dynamics.” None of this stuff works. Half the kids were below grade level twenty years ago - and that same half is below grade level today. And the kids who weren't behind? They're bored, which is also wrong. (By the way, kids are smart; they know all of this is theater.)And you can’t say these programs don’t work because we didn’t fully invest in them. Indeed, we’ve doubled our school staff (the vast majority being educators, not administrators). To make that happen, we now spend $100M more every single year to operate the District, versus what we did 20 years ago — with no change in the number of students. (For avoidance of doubt, we spend little on things like software or consultants; 90% of our budget is employee payroll/benefits.) Our student to staff ratio went from 8:1 to 4:1 (the lowest in the nation) but our best teachers still report being swamped, and our test scores haven’t budged.

With some exceptions, we’ve got our eyes on the right problems, but we fail because we have the wrong solutions, and atrocious execution. And because we forget who we're here to serve: We spend 90% of our time talking about adults - their comfort, visibility and need for affirmation - when 100% of our responsibility is to students. If it doesn't measurably improve students' academic achievement and excitement - it does not belong at the top of our agenda.

I voted against both budgets in the last term. Schools are the City’s most important investment - but almost no one (no Committee Member nor Candidate, nor City Council Member for that matter - and they ultimately approve this budget as well) can tell you how our dollars are spent today, and why they’re not making the impact we predicted when we originally allocated them.

Additional Facts, For Illustration
Standardized tests aren't perfect, but they're not useless - they tell us a lot about a students' current ability. Nonetheless, for those who suggest we're doing well, just in ways a test can't tap - I give you the results of the "climate survey," the District gives to students at the end of each school year. These (below) are the results for grades 6-12, from the end of the 2024-5 school year.

  • "How interesting do you find the things you learn in your classes?" Only 37% of students say "quite" or "extremely" interesting

  • "How high are your teachers' expectations of you?" Almost half of students (44%) couldn't say "extremely high" or "quite high"

  • "How much do your teachers encourage you to do your best?" A third (34%) of students said only "some," "a little," or "not at all"

  • "How much does the behavior of other students...hurt your learning?" 44% said "a little bit," "some," or "a tremendous amount."

  • "How often do your teachers seem excited to be teaching your classes?" Only 43% said "almost always" or "frequently"

  • "How often do your teachers take time to make sure you understand the material?" 38% said "sometimes," "once in a while," or "almost never."

Compare these numbers with this final one: 79% of our students said it was "extremely important" or "quite important" to them to do well in their classes. We're not failing because they're not motivated.

What We Got Done

1. We returned Algebra to 8th Grade (it was removed for equity in 2017, but it’s back, starting fall of 2025). We still have a ton to do here to make sure it's not only back, but also successful - but back is a good place to start.

2. We replaced failing Superintendent with a great new one. The Committee leadership's behavior, communication and decision making more generally are indefensible - but we had two great candidates at the end of the day, including the man who ultimately go the job, in whom I have complete confidence. I will scream my unhappiness about the process (and the search firm - wildly unprofessional) from the rooftops, but there is no point about process that is worth making at the expense of a great outcome, which we had in our hands. Outcomes for kids matter more than political points for adults.

3. Removed cell phones during CRLS school day (bell to bell, starting fall 2025). It's time to focus.

4. Temporarily closed our least in-demand school (the Kennedy Longfellow in East Cambridge) such that we can invest in building repairs and new programming. For context and scale, academic outcomes were the worst in the District and zero families had ranked it as their first choice last year in the school choice lottery. (This situation was allowed to fester, for decades. To be clear, it's not the fault of the faculty, and it's closure was enormously difficult for the families, who had a community they loved, in their neighborhood. More than a decade ago, test scores slipped, families with options looked at this and stopped choosing to go there, and the school entered a doom loop. Many generations of District leadership and School Committees watched this, and did nothing to arrest the slide. Back then, additional investment and attention could have done the trick, but left to now - more drastic intervention was required.) It is, however, our largest campus, and it sits in the neighborhood with the most school age children; it will remain a school, and will reopen shortly. The next School Committee will get to decide what academic programing moves in here, and will remain responsible for ensuring that this doesn't happen anywhere else.

5. Added seats to two of our most popular schools (MLK and Baldwin) which have been requested by many more families than we can accommodate, every single year, for almost a decade

6. Opened the new Tobin Montessori, in a new larger building (one of our most in-demand programs, and one of the only to demonstrate the ability - empirically - to lift up kids regardless of their family’s circumstances). The next School Committee could expand the Montessori program further.

7. Improved GPS tracking of buses (the only thing worse than being late is not knowing HOW late; it stresses kids out, causes them to miss learning time, and burdens parents who can’t afford to be late to work) More to do here though (we still need to simplify the routes we're asking the buses to run; the vendor is imperfect but we've also made the job difficult).

8. Roll out of free universal preschool for all 4 year olds and some 3 year olds

9. Required creation of an AI policy (students are already using it to complete coursework...). We need to make absolute sure kids still learn the fundamentals, while also being fluent in the technology of a modern economy. This doesn't mean learning any one application - it means getting a solid foundation in math, and the concepts and design underlying these new tools, such that students appreciate their strengths and viscerally understand their limitations. Even if you don't agree with these specifics, we can't stick our heads in the sand and pretend this isn't happening. Students are way ahead of us already.

What We'll Do Next

1. Put a GREAT program into our largest campus - the former Kennedy Longfellow in East Cambridge (the one we temporarily closed for investment). Expand on what’s working elsewhere and add specialties we don’t yet have (STEM; Music; Art...). This is a enormous opportunity, and a decision that this next School Committee will make.

2. In the same vein, further expand the existing programs parents rank highly in the school choice lottery - like our Montessori program (expand into middle school grades), and our language immersion programs. Parents tell us every single year what they want for their kids (in the lottery), and we don’t listen. We shouldn't stop looking at these data until every single family has one of their top school choices (right now, we're at 90%, but it's incredibly difficult for those families in the remainder).

3. Review every Assistant Superintendent, Principal, and all academic leadership. After the Superintendent, these are our most visible and important leaders, with outsize ability to sway morale. If you’re not great - you’re out. (There are many who fit into this category.) We’re running a school district, not a jobs program.

4. Put our best leader in charge of the middle schools, and let them loose. Our middle schools are rife with behavioral issues. And this is where we start to hold kids back, academically, because we failed to help their peers learn the basics in elementary school. Almost 20% of our elementary school families depart for middle school (many returning for high school). It's so common it even has a name - the "Cambridge Shuffle." It's embarrassing that we allow this to persist.

5. Find our spine and address the small number of faculty who really need to go. Everyone knows who they are - they generate complaints from parents repeatedly, year after after. (For example, I got an email about a staff member who was charged with helping a student with learning difficulties; this person instructed other kids in the room to allow the kid she was supporting to copy their work, and then sat in the back of the class on her phone. I'm talking about stuff like that. Rare - but bad.) Give them the benefit of real evaluations (including but not limited to their ability to improve their students’ academic achievement) and then, if there’s no improvement, make hard decisions. Doing this makes it far easier to go all in on the rest.

6. Give faculty more routes to relay information directly to the Superintendent. Too much gets lost in translation; mostly inadvertently, but sometimes by administrators looking to duck responsibility for their own decisions and hard conversations.

7. Eliminate programs and positions that aren’t able to demonstrate a clear impact - even if they sound nice! - and use those resources to better compensate and support our best educators.

8. Add advanced learning resources. 15% of our students (~1000 kids!) test multiple grades above current grade level, and - out of 1747 staff - we have just 1 person charged with focusing on them. (It used to be 0!)

9. Get kids to school - and parents to work - on time. There’s only ONE bus vendor in the area (and they’re bad), but we also make the job harder than it needs to be. We can add vehicles (we run 39 buses today, for general education; more is just a matter of cost), simplify the routes (by reducing three tiers of school start times to two; the three are too close to each other and buses get into trouble running them back to back), and improve everyone’s day. You can’t fret about the achievement gap if you don’t bother to make sure kids aren’t missing class time.

Bottom line - let's start doing the basics well! Recruit and retain great people; remove those who don’t meet the bar. Stop with the buzzwords, and just get kids what they need: If we expect kids to read by third grade, stop graduating them into fourth, fifth, sixth grade and beyond, when they haven’t yet mastered this skill. Get them to where they need to be - and then promote them. Similarly, if a kid’s working ahead – find a way to get them the coursework for which they’re ready. If you want to do geometry in middle school, let’s get you geometry. If we can put a man on the moon, we can do this.

And finally:

Important questions to ask all candidates:

You can get elected with nice words alone, but you can’t get things done with nice words alone. Make people show you they have the guts to make tough calls, and the ability to convince others to join them. Both are required.

1. If you say you’ll be a responsible steward of the budget - be specific! What would you cut, what would you expand, and what would you change? Are your cuts big enough to pay for all of your additions? (If anyone tells you we can pay for staff raises by axing a few ‘highly paid administrators,’ they haven’t done the math.)

If your plan includes getting the City to increase the schools' budget at a rate greater than they have in the past....what's your plan? (Just saying "advocacy" isn't a plan - it's a prayer.) You need concrete details, to make a difference - no matter what the change you're trying to realize. (Litmus test: What are all the existing unfunded City Mandates, and what are all the additional expenditures beyond that the City Council candidates are trying to fit in? Those are your hurdles.) You can't escape reality by "rejecting a scarcity mindset;" that's the rhetoric of people cushioned from the consequences.

2. If you say “high standards for all students” - how do you make this happen in practice? It's easy to say, but demonstrably hard to do! If a teacher has a class with abilities at seven different grade levels - on whom does he or she focus first? What do you do with the others in the meantime? If a kid is working grade levels ahead - would you approve giving them materials from the next level course, or grouping them with other kids who are ready for more? (Today the faculty’s answer is an explicit “no.”) Is your solution one that works for elementary, middle and high school?

You're not going to make this happen without pissing someone off; who are you prepared to disappoint? It's easy to stand up to your opponents, but it's hard to stand up to your supporters - are you ready for that? If it were easy, all of this stuff would alrady be done.

3. If you say you’re going to better support staff – how? Compensation? Time for planning? Be specific and speak to HOW you’ll make it happen. You need the Superintendent and/or four Committee members agree, to make something happen; you can’t do anything alone. So what, specifically, is the plan, and how will you get them on board? What will their objections be - and how can those be overcome? CPS staff can’t pay their bills with good intentions. Everyone has good intentions - that's never been our limitation. If someone hasn't happened yet, there's a reason - know what that reason is, and know how you'll address it.

About Me

My husband and I moved to Cambridge for the schools (specifically, for the Mandarin immersion program at MLK). We live on Harvard Street, and have three sons, and in a few weeks, a fourth child. I did my undergrad at Yale (’09) and then a PhD in neuroscience (building models to decode MRI data), and postdocs at UChicago and Yale Law School. I originally moved to Boston to work at an industrial robotics company (imagine turning a warehouse into a giant vending machine) and then became the CTO at a biotech venture capital firm downtown. Now I’m working on something new. When I’m not at my day job, I’m an Intelligence Officer in the Navy Reserve (I support Maritime Expeditionary Security Squadron 8, in Newport, Rhode Island), and from 2018 to 2025, I served on the Advisory Board for the Harvard/Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics as well, over on Garden Street, raising money for science. And finally, for the past two years, I’ve had the pleasure of working on the Cambridge School Committee.

I don't accept that we're doing well today, and I don't accept that better isn't possible. Yes - there are many exogenous factors that impact kids' ability to learn. But acting like it's absurd to focus on the quality of instruction until every one of these exogenous factors is fixed is like saying we can’t drive safely until every pothole is filled. It's malpractice. A ducking of responsibility. Abdication. All to avoid some uncomfortable conversations.

HERE’S HOW I’M FILLING OUT MY OWN BALLOT

Eugenia Schraa Huh: Eugenia’s humble, so she won’t put it this bluntly – but she is one of the few who is brave enough to say that what we’re doing today isn’t working. She did her undergrad at Harvard and began her career teaching English and History in a Bronx public high school. She then went to law school, during which she worked on education programs at Rikers Island. As a parent here in Cambridge, she identified afterschool programs as an area of need (most of our elementary schools get out at 2:30pm, but very few jobs end that early!) – and she advocated for expansion, ultimately adding 170 new seats to the City-run afterschool offerings (which are also the most affordable). She also identified teacher pay as a limiting factor in afterschool program size, and successfully got wages raised along the way. (Everyone talks about “wrap around services” being important – she actually changed them. She shows that not having been elected yet isn’t a limiting factor.) More recently, as Director of Constituent Services under the Cambridge Mayor, she’s tackled a diverse range of issues, with a focus on the needs of homeless families.Richard Harding: This guy is fearless. He’s the only person on the current Committee, and of the current candidates, to say exactly what he means (and mean what he says) notwithstanding the political consequences. There are a hundred things that are true, that people are afraid to say, and he’s simply not someone who takes this fear of repercussions into account; he’s focused on kids, and kids alone. He has supported a greater focus on administrator and teacher evaluations (important, if we’re going to improve our classroom instruction), additional options for advanced learning (important, because kids working at or above grade level aren’t supported well today), and a focus on behavioral issues in the classroom (which detract from learning time today).David Weinstein: He’s also reliably supported every advanced learning initiative to come before the Committee and helped to spearhead new policies on this front that were missing. (Eugenia, Richard and David are all endorsed by the Cambridge Advanced Learning Association, along with me.) Along with Richard and I, he’s helped to hire a fantastic new Superintendent.Jose Luis Rojas Villarreal: I very much appreciate his support for our new Superintendent, his focus on our District infrastructure, and his interest in and focus on the need to establish a District AI policy (which we needed yesterday). I also deeply appreciate his support for our language immersion programs; these are amongst our most popular and performant programs.Anne Coburn: There are people who talk, and people who do the work before they talk. Anne is the latter. She’s indefatigable. If you want someone who will blindly parrot the ideological party line (no matter your ideology) – this isn’t her. If you want someone who will read the research, read the policy, talk to people on the ground, and THEN weigh in – this is your girl.

Contact Me

617-397-0589

Text or call anytime.