MA ballot measure sparks heated debate on charter schools

The first charter school in Alabama will be in Mobile.

The Manhattan Institute on Wednesday released a report that concluded charter school enrollments “effectively” increase statewide per-pupil district spending by about $85 million each year, and that there is “little evidence in MA that charter schools harm traditional district schools”.

Voters will decide this November whether to lift the cap now limiting charter school expansion to 12 per year.

In performance index, the charters were better.

Question 2 on the November ballot would allow state officials to grant licenses for up to 12 additional charter schools each year, regardless of existing district-by-district caps.

But in the student growth grades, more than half of district schools scored A’s or B’s, led by Dayton, with the median grade a B. The spread was more even in the charters, with the median grade a C. In fiscal 2017, the current fiscal year, Lowell is projected to pay almost $17 million.

In public comments before the presentation, Gabriela Pereira, a student at Excel High School in South Boston, urged the School Committee to pass the resolution, arguing the school system can not afford any more financial losses.

“But because of the constraints that district leaders face, one can’t necessarily conclude that the per-pupil increases yield a clear benefit”, Eden wrote.

Districts may still have to fund materials or resources for an entire classroom even though just one or two students might have left.

A spokesperson for Save Our Public Schools said the conservative think tank’s report was “bought and paid for by the same Wall Street billionaires who are funding Question 2”. 2 of those applicants were from Huntsville and one was from Mobile. “Right-wing think tanks can fiddle with the numbers all they want, but MA parents and educators see the impact of this financial drain in classrooms every day: schools without librarians, larger class sizes, school buses eliminated, and other serious cuts”.

The public demand for charter school education and its high standards and more innovative methods argue for their expansion, O’Connor said. “Schools without librarians, larger class sizes, school buses eliminated, and other serious cuts”.

In spending efforts on both sides, $11 million has come from outside the state.

Eileen O’Connor of Great Schools Massachusetts, a pro-charter group, said the opposition has built a campaign “founded on blatant and willful lies”.

At the committee’s meeting Wednesday night, chairman Michael O’Neill and vice chairman Hardin Coleman presented a draft resolution against the ballot question, which stated that state aid to charter schools “fiscally undermines the ability of the Boston Public Schools to support the cost of a quality educational program to its students”.