On the Ordinance, referred on  April 28, 2021, Docket #0600, to Create a Task Force to Address Literacy Rates in the City of Boston, the committee submitted a report recommending the ordinance ought to pass in a new draft.
Thank you so much. Dr. 1275 will be placed on file and we will now move on to reports of committees. And Madam Clerk, could you please read Docket 0600 Docket 0600? The Committee on Government Operations, to which is referred on April 28, 2021. Docket number zero 600 Ordinance to create a task force to address literacy rates in the City of Boston, submits a report that the order ordinance ought to pass in a new draft. Thank you so much. The chair recognizes Councilor Edwards, chair of the Government Operations Committee. Councilor Edwards, you have the floor. Thank you very much. This legislation is the hard work of our colleague, Councilor me. The proposal to establish a task force on literacy rates in the city of Boston. And the. Purpose would be to study rates. Of illiteracy across the city, to develop a plan to help adults, as well as children who are not able to read or write or access city services and to recommend programs that not, um, that help to eliminate illiteracy, but also help to advance and make our city more accessible to those individuals. It establishes a membership of a task force and terms. The ordinance also provides that members of the task force who are not employees of the city will receive a stipend of $100 per meeting not to exceed $50,000 per year. Highly unlikely that we'll get that many meetings in, but the proposal also outlines the responsibilities and authorities of the task force. I would like to turn it over with your permission, to the lead sponsor and advocate for this proposal, and I recommend that this task force pass in an amended draft. Thank you so much. The chair recognizes councilman here. Councilman here. You have the floor. Thank you, Madam President. So good to see you. Back in the chamber. Caught me off guard here. So I just would like to first say that when we filed this ordinance back in April, we all need to acknowledge the tremendous privilege we all have that allows us to communicate with each other on a daily basis through emails , text messages, city forms, and other paperwork. Both my mom and I came to this country from the Dominican Republic not being able to speak, read or write in English. My mother never got beyond an education past the third grade and to this day even struggles to read and write, even in her own native language. This is a reality for many families across the city of Boston. But this conversation is so much bigger than just what is going on with our immigrant friends and neighbors. We also need to be talking about the school to prison pipeline and those who experience interrupted education. The data is clear across the U.S. 85% of juveniles who interact with the court system struggle with reading and writing. And 60% of the nation of our nation's inmates who are incarcerated have little to no literacy. We need to be asking ourselves, as elected officials, what are we doing to ensure that folks reentering our society are set up for success in all aspects of life, but especially when it comes to reading and writing. A little bit of history as to who as to how we got here when we filed that ordinance, our language access efforts, which passed earlier this year. We wanted to put into that policy a set of standards for how to engage people who cannot read or write in any language. We received word from the administration that the city was not ready to implement these standards because we did not know enough about literacy rates in Boston. And sure enough, we did the research ourselves and found that and found very little is known or compiled about literacy rates. The most recent data provided by the National Center for Education Standards for Literacy Rates in Suffolk County was in 2003. That's almost 19 years ago. We need to do a better job in this city to understand the scope of literacy in order to find new and creative ways to provide services. We also need to know that there are currently organizations across the city, organizations like English for New Bostonians, the Meet Up Coalition, and others who do amazing work for English language learners. But this city needs to play a role in making sure that these services are coordinating and collaborating with each other to ensure that as many people as possible are receiving these services. Since filing this ordinance, we we have made very few changes. We have made a distinction between community members and administration members who are listed as ex-official. You guys got to Google that word. Other changes have been made to ensure that this ordinance is compliant with our city's charter. Overall, we have been lucky in that in this issue everyone is ready and willing to roll up their sleeves and get to work. I know people tend to look down on task force, but in this instance we literally don't even know what we don't know. So reaching out to people who cannot read or write to learn more about how to provide care for them is a challenge because our whole institution of gaining knowledge is based on written surveys and emails. I also want to give a shout out to Edith Bazil and Elizabeth Santiago, who worked incredibly hard on this project alongside our office. So thank you to both of them. I'm encouraging my colleagues to vote in favor of this ordinance, and I also just kind of like want to acknowledge and thank the administration for their support in moving us along in this process. There was a lot of point of tension for me. I'll always talk about this work being personal and professional, but if we're really serious about dismantling the school to prison pipeline and addressing the issues that so many of our students are facing in the classroom, then we're going to need to lean in to some of the root causes. And if we're really serious about looking at the issues around reentry, we need to make sure that our incarcerated loved ones are being set up for success and can actually fill out job applications. And if we're really serious about supporting immigrants, then this, especially those who have had interrupted education. I think literacy is a fundamental human right, and I think we have an opportunity to just do more than just be a task force, but to really invest. And so I do hope that my colleagues will all vote in favor. And thank you to Counselor Edwards for shepherding us through this process. I really do appreciate your support and thank you very much. Thank you so much. Counselor Edwards seeks acceptance of the committee report and passage of Docket 0600 in a new draft. Madam Clerk, would you please call the roll? Thank you. Councilor Arroyo. Councilor Roy. Oh yes. Councilor Baker. Councilor Bond. Councilor Bockius. Councilor Brady. Councilor Brady AS Councilor Campbell. Councilor Campbell. Yes. Councilor Edwards. Councilor Edwards. Yes. Councilor Savage. George. Councilor. Sorry, George. Yes. Councilor Flaherty. Council Flaherty. As Councilor Flynn. Councilor Flynn. Yes. Councilor Janey. Yes. Councilor Janey. Yes. Councilor. Me here. Councilor me here. Yes. Councilor Murphy. Councilor Murphy. Yes. And Councilor O'Malley. Yes. Councilor O'Malley. Yes. Councilor Baker. Thank you, Councilor Baker. So report. It. Thank you so much. The committee report has been accepted in docket zero six. Zero zero has passed in a new draft. Before we move on, I want to acknowledge that we are joined in the chamber by councilors elect Tanya Anderson and Ruth C, who Jean, thank you so much for being here. Madam Clerk, could you please read docket 0638 at this time?