Mayoral candidate Flaherty seeks improved Boston education

(NECN) – In the last televised mayoral debate before the preliminary election, City Councilman Michael Flaherty’s performance was deemed “conventional, but mayoral” by The Boston Globe’s Editorial page, giving him the win. On the other hand, The Boston Herald said the challengers failed to faze the incumbent, Mayor Tom Menino. But Flaherty said the true winners of the debates are the viewers. Joining NECN’s Good Morning Live on Friday in the latest in its series of interviews with the mayoral candidates was councilman Flaherty. “It’s all about one person in Boston for the last 16 years, and I think to some degree he’s managed to lower people’s expectations,” Flaherty said. As Bostonians, we’ve come to expect under-performing schools, we’ve come to expect dirty streets and crime and violence.” Flaherty said that by talking to his constituents, he believes many people find Boston to be stuck in neutral. “It’s time to talk about the next generation of political leadership,” Flaherty said. One of Flaherty sticking points about the current state of the city is the quality of education offered at Boston’s public schools. “Families are leaving Boston in search of quality education,” Flaherty said. “As a lifelong resident, as a father raising children in the city with children in the Boston public schools, nothing bothers me more than that, when you hear of a nice young family moving out of Boston in search of a quality education. “We boast of the best colleges and universities in the world, yet when it comes to our elementary and secondary schools in Boston, we’re not so boastful,” Flaherty said.