Wu says city will not expand free museum program during pilot period

On Sunday, Boston Mayor Michelle Wu reiterated that the city’s program offering free admission to cultural institutions for public school students would not be expanded until the pilot ends. 

The program was announced by Wu in January and kicked off last month. Boston Public Schools students and up to three of their family members can go to the Boston Children’s Museum, the Institute of Contemporary Art, the Museum of Fine Arts, the Museum of Science, the New England Aquarium, and the Franklin Park Zoo for free. The program, known as “BPS Sundays,” makes admission free for these families on the first and second Sunday of every month. 

Wu was at the Children’s Museum with her kids Sunday when she was asked about a recent push from some City Council members to expand the program so that it includes children who live in Boston but do not attend the city’s public schools, like charter school and METCO students. 

“This was a very carefully negotiated opportunity over the course of an entire year of conversations and negotiations,” Wu told The Boston Herald. “And we’re not going to reopen those negotiations just in the middle of the agreed-upon pilot.”

Councilors Ed Flynn and Erin Murphy introduced a resolution to expand the initiative. Both praised the core idea, but took issue with the city’s decision to limit the scope of the program. They argue that students of color and those from low-income households are being unnecessarily excluded. More than 80% of Boston’s charter school students are not white, and more than 70% come from low-income households, according to the resolution.

After Flynn and Murphy introduced their resolution, Councilor Sharon Durkan objected to a vote on it, which automatically sent it to a committee for a hearing. Durkan highlighted the fact that the program is still a pilot, and said that the resolution required more of a discussion before a vote. 

It was assigned to the education committee, and a hearing was initially scheduled for March 18. But that hearing was abruptly canceled, The Boston Globe reported. Councilor Henry Santana, chair of the committee, said that it would make more sense to assess the situation once the program has been in place for more than a few weeks. 

“We’ll be in a better position to understand how the program is being utilized and to discuss how it could be expanded once the pilot program has been running for more than a few Sundays, and we have more data available,” Santana said in a statement to the Globe. 

The city needs to examine the financial impacts the program has on these institutions and how the BPS community uses the program before changes are made, Wu told the Herald. Her goal is to have a permanent version of the initiative at the end of the pilot period. The city does not have the funding to expand the program during its pilot period, she told the paper. 

Flynn dismissed the need for more data before changes are made. 

“I don’t need data to tell me that private-school students and their families are being excluded,” he told the Globe.