BOSTON — City Councilor Tito Jackson and former Democratic state Rep. Marty Walz engaged in what was at times a heated debate Tuesday over Question 2, which will ask voters state-wide this November whether to lift the cap on public charter schools.
Although the impact of the November vote will be felt across the state, the debate held on the campus of the University of Massachusetts Boston was noticeably Boston-centric. When Jackson argued that the ballot question represents an unfunded mandate that the city will be struggle to afford, Walz countered that Boston Public Schools currently "spend more per pupil than any of the 100 largest school districts in America."
With the start of the new academic term now just weeks away, there's at least one controversy that is certain to roil American college campuses again this fall: anti-Israel activism and anti-Semitism on campus.
On the heels of a 2015-2016 school year in which campus activists sought to convince public university systems such as the University of Massachusetts to divest from Israel, signs have popped up over the summer months that anti-Semitism linked to anti-Israel activism is on the rise.
