AT THE OUTSET, I make two admissions: I am not a fan of making public policy via ballot initiative and my children currently are enrolled in private, independent schools. I suppose I should make a third admission: I am a Democrat who believes in public education and thinks teachers are the most put upon – […]
Charter schools
Posted inEducation
Charter showdown
IN NOVEMBER, MASSACHUSETTS voters will have their say on a ballot question that would allow up to 12 new or expanded charter schools each year above the existing state cap on the independently-run, but publicly-funded, schools. The issue has inflamed passions on both sides. We asked two prominent Boston education leaders, Jon Clark, co-director of […]
Posted inEducation, Opinion
The missing piece of education reform
TWENTY-FIVE YEARS ago a broad coalition of legislators, business people, education experts, and state officials put together and passed a wide-reaching education reform law. That law reflects a set of shared beliefs—basically, that a combination of increased funding, state testing tied to graduation requirements, new state curriculum frameworks, charter schools, and increased authority for superintendents […]
Posted inEducation
Charter cap debate clouds original intent
PROMOTING INNOVATION WAS the original purpose of charter schools. As first envisioned by union leader Albert Shanker and others, charters would benefit the educational system as a whole by serving as laboratories for new ideas. With higher levels of autonomy, charters would have the freedom to experiment. Some of those experiments would be incorporated into traditional […]
Posted inEducation, The Download
The charter funding debate
The impact of charter schools on district school budgets has become a central point of contention in the debate over Question 2, the November ballot question that would allow an expansion in the number of charter schools in Massachusetts. A basic principle of school funding in the state is that the dollars follow the students, […]
Posted inThe Download
Charter school math
It’s unlikely to change many minds because, like who won the presidential debate, facts mean little when it comes to perception and opinion. But a new study by the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation could give pause to those opposed to lifting the cap on charter schools based on the argument it hits traditional school districts in the […]
Posted inEducation, Opinion
Boston’s ‘A team’ of charter school leaders
ANYONE LISTENING TO the pricey TV ad duels over whether to lift the cap on charter schools in Massachusetts knows there’s plenty to disagree about. But only the careful listeners know there’s one undisputed point: Massachusetts has the nation’s best charter schools, as this just-released Brookings study makes clear. The only remaining disagreement is how […]
Posted inState House News Service, The Download
Family feud
Democrats in Massachusetts don’t have many Republicans to fight and the one they do – Gov. Charlie Baker – has charmed them into passivity. But in the ballot question to raise the charter school cap, they have apparently found a cause to go to war with but it appears they’re battling each other in a […]
Posted inEducation, Opinion
End the charter school wars
IT SEEMS TO have become an annual ritual now, like taxes, the flu, or hurricane season. The charter schools war flares up to a point of intensity, sucking up all the oxygen in the education realm and consuming tons of good will and sometimes millions of dollars in the fierce clash of two orthodox cultures, […]
Posted inEducation
Charter schools’ early days in Massachusetts
JUST HOURS BEFORE Gov. Charlie Baker joined with Hispanic leaders in East Boston on Tuesday afternoon to rally on behalf of his proposal to raise the cap on charter schools, two people who were there when charter schools were first authorized in the state 23 years ago shared some of that history – and considered […]