IT’S A NEW YEAR and the people of Massachusetts have spoken. On Question 2, a ballot initiative which would have given urban students more charter public school options, the electorate said no. Emphatically. But now that the teachers unions won the debate, they need to show the public that they can adopt the policies and practices that […]
Question 2
Posted inEducation
Charter backers get schooled
NEARLY A YEAR AGO, charter school proponents threatened to force a statewide debate on education issues by mounting a ballot campaign lift the cap on charters schools. Be careful what you wish for. It turned out teachers unions, school leaders, and municipal officials across the state were eager to have that conversation. When the contentious […]
Posted inEducation, Opinion
Pro-charter vote doesn’t diminish district commitment
ON NOVEMBER 8, I will vote yes on Question 2, the referendum that would allow for controlled expansion of charter schools in Massachusetts. I have always embraced any social invention, including charter schools, which gets any child out of the educational wilderness of poor schooling. Thousands of students in the Commonwealth now languish in underperforming […]
Posted inEducation, Opinion
Real Democrats support charter schools
WITH JUST DAYS until America selects a successor to President Obama, a longstanding kerfuffle has broken into the open on his longstanding, crystal clear opposition to artificial caps on public charter schools. An aggressive form of this denial came to the forefront of Massachusetts politics this summer when, after the Democratic State Committee rushed a vote […]
Posted inEducation, Opinion
Charters offer high-quality choice
MY SUBURBAN FRIENDS are asking for my stand on Question 2. I tell them my “yes” vote is based on one critical measure: There are simply not enough high-performing district schools in Boston to serve even half of the students enrolled in them. My view is not based on hearsay, but rather hard-earned facts. I’ve […]
Posted inEducation, Opinion
Charter narrative gets story wrong
A narrative is like a room on whose walls a number of false doors have been painted; while within the narrative, we have many apparent choices of exit, but when the author leads us to one particular door, we know it is the right one because it opens. – John Updike AS THE CHARTER school […]