Chun-Fai Chan is one of the five candidates vying to replace former District 6 City Councilor John Tobin a special election preliminary ballot Oct. 19. District 6 encompasses West Roxbury, Jamaica Plan, Roslindale and Mission Hill.
Chan is a long-term West Roxbury resident and high school teacher. He and his family have deep roots in Boston Chinatown. Chan shares with the Sampan about his vision for public education and his reasons for running.
Sampan: Please tell our readers about yourself.
Chan: I was born in Hong Kong and I came to Boston with my family when I was four years old. Since then, I have lived in the city of Boston for much of my life (twenty years in West Roxbury). For the past six years, I have been a schoolteacher in the Boston Public Schools.
Sampan: What prompted you to run for City Council?
Chan: I have said that I have two motivations why I am running for City Council. The first one is advocacy for young people, families, and teachers. Too often, their voices are not always being heard in city government particularly when it comes to schools. This group should have a stake in the decision-making process because these decisions would affect them the most at home and in the classroom. The second one is to present this idea of a democratic participatory government because it is your government and your participation that is needed to make the city a better place for all. Those are the two main reasons I am running for City Council.
Sampan: What are the issues facing Boston’s District 6 neighborhoods and how are you hoping to address them?
Chan: As I have traveled throughout Boston’s District 6 (which is made up of the Boston neighborhoods of Jamaica Plain, West Roxbury, and parts of Roslindale and Mission Hill), the single biggest issue facing Boston’s District 6 neighborhoods is the schools. The residents of District 6 want quality schools in their neighborhoods just like in any neighborhood in the city. When we do advocate for quality neighborhood schools, it is important to realize that as a city we all need work together to achieve the goal of quality neighborhood schools because when it comes to the future leaders of our city, state, and country we cannot just play short-term politics and do what is politically expedient to satisfy one group or one constituency. How to do this is to finally have an open dialogue of the past scars that have happened because of desegregation of the public schools in the 1970s. Until we as a city get past the animosity and bitter feelings of that era, we are never going to progress as a city toward a common solution of quality neighborhood schools that benefit everyone.
Sampan: What Asian communities can one find in the District?
Chan: There is a sizable Asian population in District 6 as the neighborhoods have become increasingly diverse. With that diversity comes individuals from many different cultures and backgrounds, which includes the Asian community. Young Asian professionals (like many other young professionals) are living in Jamaica Plain and Mission Hill while many more Asian families have increasingly been moving to West Roxbury and Roslindale. This is a great sign of progress in our neighborhoods and I am hopeful that these trends toward diverse neighborhoods continue because that is the unique quality of living in America.
Sampan: You are a public school teacher. What do you think are the major issues facing the public school system in the City?
Chan: The high school dropout rate is one of the major issues facing the public school in the city. To curb the high school dropout rate, we need to encourage our families to become more engaged in their children’s lives like checking in with them at various times even when families are working long hours. We also need to encourage families to read to their children to increase literacy rates. This goes back to the idea of a democratic participatory government in that these are concepts that the government cannot help a family do, and it takes all of you to contribute so that our young people can be the competent, future leaders that we know they can be.
Sampan: What are some of the practical steps to help immigrants in the city of Boston to find jobs?
Chan: We need to provide everyone including immigrants the tools they need to succeed. Without them, all the talent that individuals have cannot be nurtured. Specifically, we need to continue to fund job-training programs because a worker needs to have an array of skills in order to compete in the job market; this includes having a proper education. A person now may have to have two to three professions so there needs to be opportunities for that person to get training or go back to school. Finally, we need to bring back trade schools and vocational schools because we need to develop our future builders and construction workers who are in various types of construction (including green construction) that hopefully pay well and have a career ladder.
