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Lifelong Cambridge resident and incumbent candidate Richard Harding Jr. will join 17 others in the election for the Cambridge School Committee next month after 16 nonconsecutive years in the position.
Harding has been willing to break away from the pack during his most recent two-year term on the School Committee. He was one of two members to vote against CPS’ annual budget earlier this year, stating that the budget allocated insufficient funding to issues like teacher evaluations, student achievement, and family outreach.
“They’ll say a lot of things about me. I’m not always the nicest guy, but they cannot dispute the facts, and that's where I lie. I’m not here to be nice. I’m here to be effective,” Harding said.
Harding attended Cambridge Public Schools from kindergarten to 12th grade — including Kennedy-Longfellow Elementary school, whose closure earlier this year sparked controversy across the district — and ran for the School Committee for the first time in 2001.
Aside from working on the School Committee, Harding owns a marijuana dispensary on Massachusetts Ave. and serves as a manager at the Cambridge Public Health Department.
Harding has pushed for more comprehensive teacher evaluations over the past two years, alongside “cultural changes” in CPS, to address the district’s persistent achievement gaps along economic and racial lines.
“You have a culture change that has to happen where it’s not okay if any kid fails, period,” Harding said.
Harding added that while CPS should recognize unique factors that impact particular students' progress in the classroom, the district should also ensure that all students are held to the same standards.
“Don’t worry about this,‘We don’t want to give them too much homework, we don’t know what they’re doing at home.’ Give them homework,” Harding said.
The incumbent also addressed several recent public criticisms aimed at the School Committee. The past two months have seen the School Committee come under fire for an alleged lack of transparency and engagement with district families during the search for a new district superintendent.
Caregivers, parents, and members of the public called for a halt to the superintendent search at a September committee meeting, citing a lack of stakeholder engagement during the process. The month before, the CPS teachers’ union wrote a letter calling for the district to restart its search altogether.
Harding defended the superintendent search process, saying that he felt it was more nuanced than the public gave credit for. He added that the School Committee had always “reserved the right” to redo the process if unsatisfied with their final candidate.
Harding also plans to change certain School Committee rules if he is reelected — including the requirement for the Cambridge mayor to serve as school committee chair. He said he believes School Committee members — including the appointed chair — should be familiar with educational policy, a skill which mayors do not necessarily possess.
“What the School Committee and the school district and the people of Cambridge need now is proven leadership that’s consistent and reliable. Leadership that you can trust to every day work on behalf of the Cambridge Public Schools,” he said.
Harding summarized his campaign in a critique of relaxed standards for some students.
“I think that the low expectations and low aim — that’s where dreams go to die,” he said.
—Staff writer Ayaan Ahmad can be reached at ayaan.ahmad@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @AyaanAhmad2024.
—Staff writer Claire A. Michal can be reached at claire.michal@thecrimson.com.
