For MASSPTA

Ruth Kaplan was sworn in today to represent the MassPTA on the Massachusetts Board of Education. 

First and foremost, I wish to thank Governor Deval Patrick  for the confidence he has shown in me by making this appointment. You may have noticed that for the past two weeks, there has been a fair amount of attention paid to my appointment to the BOE, and I believe the Governor  cannot get enough credit for designing a more balanced Board of Education. I also want to thank the Board of the Massachusetts PTA for nominating me along with two other excellent candidates for this position.

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I could really thank each and every one of you in this room, as so many of you have done so much, but I am not going to do that other than to offer my collective thanks. You know what you all have done  To my husband Toby Kusmer and to my two daughters Sarah Rose and Anna, thanks for bearing with me during a challenging period, and to my parents Sumner and Eleanor Kaplan, I cannot find the words to express my thanks for your support. 

I want to thank you all for coming today to be my guests and witnesses to this swearing in. This is of course a momentous occasion for me personally???to become a part of a group of caring citizens committed to directing the course of education policy in Massachusetts, and in particular to represent the interests of parents. It seems like such a simple idea, but in fact I will be the pioneer for this concept, and will hopefully help to increase parental and guardian access to educational policy in our state, as well as to enhance parent-school communications generally. This element is so critical to the success of our students, as we all know.

Much has been made of my commitment to a comprehensive assessment system in Massachusetts. In some ways, this is puzzling. We all know that the 1993 Ed Reform law called for an assessment system based on a  variety of assessment instruments Unfortunately, that system is not what transpired. I hope we can do something to correct that, and I intend to try. But the key here is not me???it is an " us " situation. Governor Patrick???s campaign slogan was " Together We Can."  I guess I am going to appropriate that slogan???and I will be represented by my husband Toby, the intellectual property "maven," to get me out of a jam with the Governor for infringing upon that slogan!  

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There is a quote of Eleanor Roosevelt on my file cabinet at home that reads: "Do one thing every day that scares you."  I guess I have done that for today, but tomorrow is another day. Together let us all continue to advocate for the principles of equal educational opportunity that unite us, and together we can fulfill the vision articulated by Governor Patrick of educating the whole child in Massachusetts whether that child is from Holyoke, New Bedford, Brookline or Wayland. It is not acceptable that a former classmate of my daughter who completed the METCO program in Brookline schools K-8 and then went on to a Boston public high school recently told me that all of her math classes had 40 students in them and that in the 10th grade she was taught the same curriculum she had covered in the 7th grade in Brookline.  Let us dedicate ourselves to closing the opportunity gaps that are still so glaring in this Commonwealth.

Finally, if I had my druthers, I would have fed all of you after this swearing in, but had to agree to the rules of no food in this room....so my apologies. As a Jewish mother, that is not my style, but hopefully we will break bread together at other happy occasions.

Thank you for coming and have a great afternoon! Ruth Kaplan, 6/19/07