BOSTON — Boston spends more than $30,000 per student — and the results are getting worse.

With the 2025 mayoral election approaching, Mayor Michelle Wu is facing mounting scrutiny over a school system that’s bloated, broken, and bleeding credibility. Her signature education policies have failed to deliver academic improvement. Now, challenger Josh Kraft is stepping in with a simple message: fix it — or get out of the way.

A $30,000 Disaster

Boston Public Schools now spend between $31,000 and $36,000 per student — far more than almost any district in the country.

And what’s the return?

Test scores remain abysmal. In 2023, just 29% of BPS students were proficient in math. Only 32% hit the mark in English. The district was nearly taken over by the state two years ago. And nothing has fundamentally changed.

Graduation rates remain stuck. Special education remains under strain. Chronic absenteeism is rising. And despite endless political slogans, the outcomes for Black and Latino students remain shockingly low.

Wu Went After the Wrong Schools

Instead of improving basic performance, Wu targeted the city’s best-performing institutions.

Boston Latin School. Latin Academy. O’Bryant.

All three are exam schools — or were, until Wu backed a controversial overhaul of their admissions system. The traditional entrance exam was scrapped. In its place: a zip-code based quota system that prioritizes geography over academic merit.

The results? Students from traditionally high-performing neighborhoods like West Roxbury, Charlestown, and South Boston are being pushed out — regardless of how well they performed in the classroom.

The city's top schools are no longer academic sanctuaries. They're political chess pieces.

Kraft Steps In

Josh Kraft, the former Boys & Girls Clubs executive and longtime community leader, has made education the centerpiece of his campaign to unseat Wu this fall.

In a statement on X, he laid out the contrast plainly:

Wu: Failed to raise literacy rates for students despite state oversight. I will boost literacy 10% citywide using high-dosage tutoring, teacher support, and community partnerships.

Kraft has vowed to restore standards, invest in evidence-based interventions, and return credibility to a system many families say has lost its way.

An Election That May Hinge on the Classroom

As November approaches, Wu will have to answer for one of the worst cost-to-performance records in the country — and for what she did to the schools that used to lift Boston’s public education system above the rest.

Kraft, meanwhile, is offering something rare in city politics: measurable goals and a plan to reach them.

For Boston families watching their schools crumble despite record spending, that message may hit home.