Mayor Wu Details Early Education, Equity Plans at Boston Research Bureau Forum

BOSTON — July 20, 2026 — Mayor Wu outlines early education and equity agenda at Boston Research Bureau forum. Speaking before business and civic leaders at a July 20 luncheon, Mayor Michelle Wu described early childhood enrollment gains — 1,000 more four-year-olds entering quality pre-K programs next school year — and a $17 million-plus vended meals contract awarded to Roxbury-based City Fresh Foods, the city's largest non-construction contract with a certified Black-owned business. Wu defended the city's $400 million-plus ARPA spending strategy as deliberately cross-departmental and aimed at creating lasting social infrastructure, warning against "band-aids" that leave Boston "in the same place but just one year down the road." Boston Foundation President and CEO M. Lee Pelton followed with the foundation's new "Our New Pathway" equity plan, anchoring it in Federal Reserve data showing the median net worth of Black Bostonians remains $8 against nearly $250,000 for white Bostonians, and citing Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation estimates that closing the racial wealth gap could add $25 billion to the Commonwealth's GDP over five years.