Boston Public Schools announced a new jobs pipeline partnership with the state's largest health care system, funded by a $37.8 million donation, the biggest in the district's history.
Boston Mayor Michelle Wu, Schools Superintendent Mary Skipper made the announcement Wednesday morning at Massachusetts General Hospital's Museum of Medical History and Innovation. Wu's office described the unveiling as "a transformative partnership to support career-connected learning through the largest philanthropic gift in BPS history."
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The donation is part of $250 million from Bloomberg Philanthropies in 10 communities across the country to create new high schools or invest in existing ones whose graduates will move directly into health care. The funding for Boston will double the size of the Edward M. Kennedy Academy for Health Careers, a college prep and vocational school with campuses in the Longwood Medical Area and Roxbury, through a Boston's partnership between Mass General Brigham, the city said in a statement.
"For too long, our education system has failed to prepare students for good jobs in high-growth industries," Michael Bloomberg said in a statement. "By combining classroom learning with hands-on experience, these specialized healthcare high schools will prepare students for careers with opportunities for growth and advancement. America needs more healthcare workers, and we need a stronger, larger middle-class — and this is a way to help accomplish both goals."
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Each school receiving the funding will offer both traditional classes and instruction in health care offered by employees with the health care system, Bloomberg Philanthropies said. The students will have a chance to do immersive work with their partner health care system including job shadowing and paid internships.
"We are deeply grateful to Bloomberg Philanthropies for their transformational support that will allow us to dramatically increase the impact of our proven partnership with the Edward M. Kennedy Academy for Health Careers and for our continued collaboration with Mayor Wu, the City of Boston and Boston Public Schools. We are excited about the tremendous impact this expansion will have on our current and future workforce and the surrounding community," Mass General Brigham President and CEO Anne Klibanski said in a statement.
Howard Wolfson, the education program lead at Bloomberg Philanthropies and an aide to Bloomberg when he was mayor of New York City, was set to be at the announcement.
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Through the new program, graduates of Edward M. Kennedy Academy for Health Careers will have the option of taking a job in the Mass General Brigham system or continuing on to higher education. Being added to the school's nursing and emergency services pathways are ones in surgery, medical imaging and lab science, according to the city.
"With this transformational support, we are bringing the full resources of Mass General Brigham’s nation-leading teaching hospitals into a deep partnership with the Boston Public Schools," Wu said in a statement. "Leveraging the incredible resources of Boston – our universities, our businesses, our cultural institutions, and our academic medical centers – to support college and career-connected learning in our high schools will help our students achieve their highest aspirations."
