A Dangerous Overstep: When City Councilors Freelance Education Policy
This morning on TikTok, Councilor Soto announced she would be meeting with the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) commissioner, alongside Councilor Marsan and Councilor Pesce. The meeting is being facilitated by their “good friend,” Senator Pavel Payano.
(Source: The TikTok video - https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8fYG8DA/)
According to Councilor Soto, the purpose is to secure “resources for special education.”
There’s just one problem: this meeting bypassed the Acting Superintendent and the School Committee entirely. District leadership didn’t learn about it through official channels. They learned about it because a School Committee member happened to see Soto’s TikTok video.
That alone should alarm anyone who understands how public education governance works.
What DESE Actually Is … and Isn’t
DESE is the regulatory and oversight agency, not a funding faucet, for public education in Massachusetts. Its core responsibilities include setting statewide education standards, monitoring district compliance with state and federal law, administering assessments like MCAS, approving special education programs, and providing technical assistance when districts fall out of compliance.
(Source: https://www.mass.gov/info-details/overview-of-the-department-of-elementary-and-secondary-education)
Notice how it says “technical assistance” and not financial assistance. That is an important distinction.
What DESE does not do is directly hand out discretionary money to districts because local officials ask for it. “Resources” in education almost always means funding, and funding decisions are made through the state budget process which is controlled by the Legislature and the Governor, not the DESE commissioner. This is a fact that Senator Payano is well aware of and should have shared with the trio of Councilors.
If additional special education funding is the goal, that conversation belongs in budget hearings, Chapter 70 debates, circuit breaker reimbursement discussions, and formal legislative advocacy… not a side meeting with regulators.
Any competent legislator would know this. Which raises an uncomfortable question: was this not explained to the councilors, or did they not care?
Why This Is a Serious Overreach
City councilors do not run the school district. They do not oversee special education. They do not manage compliance with IDEA, IEPs, or state regulations. That responsibility rests squarely with the Superintendent and the School Committee.
By freelancing a meeting with DESE without notifying district leadership these councilors have inserted themselves into an operational and regulatory lane they do not understand and do not control.
That’s not advocacy. That’s interference.
Worse, this kind of backchannel engagement can have lasting consequences. Once a district is elevated to the commissioner’s direct attention outside normal processes, everything that naturally reaches DESE over the course of the year, complaints, reports, data submissions, may receive heightened scrutiny. That attention isn’t automatically positive. It can just as easily magnify problems, misunderstandings, or incomplete narratives.
Special Education Is Not a Photo Op
Special education is complex, technical, and heavily regulated. It involves federal law, state oversight, staffing realities, and funding mechanisms that even experienced school committee members spend years learning.
Marching into DESE without that knowledge, without coordination, and without authority doesn’t help students. It creates risk. They couldn’t even be bothered to include a single subject matter expert in their planning for this meeting never mind for attendance.
If the goal truly is to support students with disabilities, the path is clear: work with the School Committee, partner with district leadership, and advocate through the Legislature where funding decisions are actually made. This is what the prior School Committee did last year in conjuction with several other school committees from different districts.
Anything else is political theater.