A new chapter in the battle over charter schools opened last week on Beacon Hill, but the storyline of this long-running saga never really seems to change much.
After a 2010 education reform law expanded the number of charter schools allowed in the state, advocates are back asking the state to allow more of the public, but independently-run schools, because of the continuing demand for charter seats in urban districts that are already bumping up against the new 2010 cap. A Globe editorial today supports lifting the cap, citing the impressive student achievement results at charter schools and the desperate pleas of parents for alternatives to struggling urban district systems where underperforming schools are all too common.
Opponents say charters drain money from district systems. This claim persists despite a funding formula that continues to send money to districts for several years for students that have left its classrooms for charter schools. They also say charters only do well because they “skim” the best students and leave districts to educate children with most challenges and the least involved parents. Worcester School Committee member Tracy O’Connell Novick advances this argument in a letter in today’s Globe.
Novick points to a recent study of Massachusetts charter schools by the Center for Research on Education Outcomes at Stanford University, which does not control for factors like parental influence. A 2009 study of Boston charter schools, however, was able to control for such factors by comparing students who won seats in a charter school lottery with those who also sought a seat but lost and attended a district school. The report found higher achievement results for charter students.
An important question for district systems was posed by Mitchell Chester, the state education commissioner, in a letter accompanying the release of the 2009 study. “What is it about charter schools that allows them to achieve such strong results, and how can their effective practices be more widely disseminated?” he asked.
It’s a question that state lawmakers appeared to take to heart in the 2010 reform law. Belief that the factors behind charters’ success include longer school days and more flexibility when it comes to staffing decisions spurred the law’s provision for district ”innovation schools” and the growth of in-district charter schools, which operate with many of the autonomies enjoyed by charters but within a district system.
Boston Mayor Tom Menino testified at last week’s Beacon Hill hearing in support of more in-district charters, but he urged the Legislature to maintain the current limit on independent charter schools. Imitation is said to be the highest form of flattery. Charter leaders have generally treated it that way, applauding reforms in district systems, not viewing them as threats to their model.
Two voices at last week’s hearing captured the ongoing debate. Menino seemed to be saying charter schools should run in place while district systems are given leeway to adopt more of their practices. Meanwhile, Boston Foundation president Paul Grogan said the idea that the state would hold back the growth of a school model that has generated clear benefits for low-income children in cities with underperforming district schools is “bewildering.”
–MICHAEL JONAS
MARATHON BOMBINGS
The Globe reports that the Tsarnaev brothers traversed very familiar terrain during their final 90 minute ride through Greater Boston.
NPR (via WBUR) profiles Judy Clarke, the attorney for Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.
MUNICIPAL MATTERS
The 17th annual Mother’s Day Walk for Peace in Dorchester drew thousands of people who gathered to remember those lost to street violence as well as the Marathon bombings and the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre in Connecticut.
A Beverly developer is disputing a $3,000 per unit fee the town charges for water hookups, the Salem News reports.
NATIONAL POLITICS/WASHINGTON
The IRS targeted groups critical of the government or who sought to educate Americans about the US Constitution, the Washington Post reports. Time’s Joe Klein says the scandal shows President Obama’s management flaws.
US Rep. Joseph Kennedy III talked about Benghazi, immigration, and congressional gridlock in his first few months in office in a sit-down with Keller@Large.
Maureen Dunn of Randolph, who was the force behind the movement to account for POWs/MIAs after her husband was shot down during the Vietnam War, died on Friday.
The New York Times says that the focus on immigration legislation in Washington is obscuring the real shift in immigration politics — the one happening in San Diego and Tijuana.
ELECTIONS
Singer Carole King goes to Springfield to support Ed Markey and praise his environmental record.
Newt Gingrich maxes out to Gabriel Gomez, and then tells Gomez to stay as far away as he can from people like Newt Gingrich.
New York magazine tries to sell folks on the argument that Anthony Weiner’s mayoral flirtations are nothing to laugh at.
BUSINESS/ECONOMY
Boston Beer, maker of Sam Adams beer, may be growing into the big leagues, but founder Jim Koch is fighting to keep it considered small-time for tax purposes.
Economist Richard Florida argues that lower state income taxes do not lead to meaningful economic development. Instead, he writes, higher tax rates are often found in states that have high concentrations of wealth, and robust knowledge-based economies. One could read Florida’s post as a slap at Harvard’s Ed Glaeser, who worried that Beacon Hill’s income tax debate would scare away wealthy businessmen. CommonWealth’s spring issue dove deep into overall state tax rates, and found Massachusetts tracking closely with the national average for the past two decades.
A Wall Street Journal op-ed column raps Craigslist for acting like the old media dinosaurs it decimated, and fighting nimble, innovative competitors with an army of lawyers.
Banker & Tradesman reports that a tough new anti-foreclosure state law, along with rising real estate values, have combined to throw the brakes on foreclosures in Massachusetts. The paper also takes a trip to Hendry Street in Dorchester, Boston’s onetime foreclosure capital.
National Grid has reached a tentative agreement with its union employees that averts a strike and grants the workers a 10 percent wage increase over the next four years.
CASINOS
The Southeastern Mass. casino license could be “a tricky bet” for gambling companies, reports the Globe, citing everything from the likelihood that the two other casinos allowed for in state law could be up and running first to the ongoing efforts by the Mashpee Wampanoag to assert tribal gaming rights in the region.
The Springfield City Council approves the host community agreement with casino giant MGM.
EDUCATION
WBUR begins a series looking at how Boston public schools have improved their sports programs since a scathing report four years ago.
Rich paydays for many at UMass Lowell and throughout the UMass system, the Sun reports.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren introduces a bill, the first she has authored solo, designed to lower student loan interest rates for one year while Congress attempts to come up with a longer term solution.
PHILANTHROPY
Boston-area charities are feeling pinched by a downturn in giving that seems closely tied to the millions of dollars being donated to One Fund Boston, the charity set up to aid victims of the Marathon bombings.
CRIMINAL JUSTICE
Gunmen opened fire at a Mother’s Day parade in New Orleans, wounding 19, the Associated Press reports (via Boston.com).
James Holmes, who allegedly killed a dozen people at a movie theater in Aurora, Colorado, last July, is expected to plead not guilty by reason of insanity at a hearing later today.
An admitted white supremacist who allegedly went on a hate-filled rage in Brockton that ended with the murder of two Cape Verdeans and the injury and rape of a third more than four years ago will finally be in court for his trial this week.
MEDIA
The Nieman Journalism Lab reviews last week’s media news, including Howard Kurtz’s grilling, Politico’s paywall bid, and growing opposition to the Koch brothers and their media plans.
Times media critic David Carr takes on the hot new newspaper business model: printing words on paper and tossing the finished product onto people’s porches. Digital-heavy papers in New Orleans and Philadelphia are embracing print again, Carr writes, because “that’s where the money and the customers are for the time being.”
Suffolk University and the Boston Herald are teaming up to cover Boston’s mayoral race, with the school’s government relations chief, John Nucci, taking up the mantle of political analyst.
