Brockton Public Schools

To understand the turmoil at Brockton High School, study the school system’s budget woes. Short of cash for the second year, Brockton’s teaching corps is overwhelmed amid an $18.3 million deficit.

Brockton, citing financial hardship over the last year, has left more than a thousand public school students without teachers for one or more periods a day. These students are overwhelmingly Black and brown.

There are estimated to be hundreds of Brockton Public Schools students sitting in the high school cafeteria or classrooms with no teacher, or maybe just a teacher aide, or paraprofessional, as Peter Roby reported in last week’s Banner. Brockton’s enrollment is predominantly Black or Hispanic.