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Wilmers blasts city school board

WBFO News photo by Mike Desmond

Buffalo banker Robert Wilmers read the riot act to the Buffalo School Board Wednesday night, saying it is failing and not much appears to be going on to turn it around.  Wilmers' comments came during an address at Canisius College's Montante Center on the State of Public Education in Buffalo.

The chairman and CEO of M&T Bank has long been a major figure on the local scene, even if not out shaking hands a lot. He's also a major behind-the-scenes figure for the school board, helping pay for the search process which brought James Williams in as schools superintendent.

He told the packed house well-trained workers are essential to improve the local economy and Buffalo isn't producing them. Wilmers says the schools have to be taken away from the school board, possibly for charter schools.

"Westminister Community Charter School is ours and there have been other successful charter schools in town. There have charter schools that have been less successful charter schools. But, I think the best way at this point it to have either a state takeover or a city takeover," said Wilmers.

In his speech, Wilmers produced long arrays of numbers which he says show this is a failed school system with students receiving bad educations, when they show up, sending them on to lifelong problems.

 

Mike Desmond is one of Western New York’s most experienced reporters, having spent nearly a half-century covering the region for newspapers, television stations and public radio. He has been with WBFO and its predecessor, WNED-AM, since 1988. As a reporter for WBFO, he has covered literally thousands of stories involving education, science, business, the environment and many other issues. Mike has been a long-time theater reviewer for a variety of publications and was formerly a part-time reporter for The New York Times.