The Herald News – Report: Gateway City schools challenged

The commonweath’s so-called Gateway Cities serve roughly 25 percent of all Massachusetts public school students. According to a report released last week by MassINC, those cities also serve its neediest student populations.

The report studied 14 of the 26 Gateway Cities, small- to mid-size cities that in most cases were once the centers of burgeoning industries but are no longer. They include Taunton and Fall River, neither of which participated, but which will nonetheless benefit from the report’s findings.

MassINC research director Benjamin Forman and mayors Lisa Wong of Fitchburg and Kimberley Driscoll of Salem discussed the report last week in a conference call. (Read more…)