The Boston Teachers Union is placing members in all 27 of the city’s libraries to help students with homework for two hours one evening every week for the rest of the school year. The Homework Helpers program is sponsored by the the union, the city of Boston, and the 60,000-student school district. Union members approved spending $44,000 to pay the teachers involved in the program, believed to be the first of its kind.

Bess Keller is a senior contributing editor for the opinion section of Education Week.