A Fight to Control the Schools

The main issue," says one candidate, "is where the balance of power is going to be on the school committee."

Like the city council, the Cambridge School Committee divides up into reformers--this year endorsed by Cambridge Convention '75--and Independents. Unlike the city council, however, it's not particularly fruitful to assign these groups the tags "liberal" and "conservative."

It's really a confilct between one group that says it's opposing patronage and corruption in appointments and another one that says it wants to defend Cambridge from incursions by "outsiders."

The reformers gained a majority of the school committee in the last election when three members affiliated with the Cambridge Civic Association (CCA).

The Independents won two seats the last time around, and got the support of Mayor Walter J. Sullivan, who serves as an ex-officio member of the committee. There were many, many 4-3 votes.

It's hard to see any burning issues developing in this campaign, especially since school committee elections don't generally grab people the way city council elections do, but there are some specific areas where you're likely to see reflections of the philosophical differences of the two groups.

One is the hiring of administrators. The CCA group favors setting guidelines for hiring and approving only those candidates who meet the qualifications. The Independents favor promotion from within the school system.

"The system should be built from within," an Independent office-seeker. Who asked not to be identified, said. "Taking people from outside hurts the morale of those within."

Convention-endorsed incumbent Glenn S. Koocher '71 takes a harsher line. "The question is whether or not there will be patronage on the school committee," he said. He described the principal of a large Cambridge school as "really senile--worse than Pusey at his worst."

Another potentially sticky point is the Cambridge Teachers' Association's contract negotiation. The teachers are now without a contract, but have agreed to continue teaching through mid-October under the terms of the old agreement. Although a strike is very unlikely, a serious breakdown in negotiations could have political consequences.

Generally, the Independents have been more accommodating to the teachers than the reformers. The latter invariably point out that Cambridge's per-pupil cost is the highest in the state.

On the other hand, Donald A. Fantini, a former independent committeeman who was an unsuccessful candidate for city council in the last election, described the teachers as "reasonable people" and said that when he was on the committee some CCA-sponsored members "acted in bad faith" during union negotiations. Though there probably wouldn't be great public enthusiasm for a raise to teachers in these troubled times, the teachers themselves could be a significant force at the polls.

Unlike in Boston, the issues in the Cambridge School Committee campaign aren't really those that whip Harvard students into a frenzy. But with more than $25 million waiting to be disbursed on the school department, a lot of people will regard this election as important.