As depicted in the video above, Massachusetts state law makes it so that no more than 9% of students from any school district can attend a charter school.
With the Department of Education's approval of Boston's 15th charter school (Dorchester Collegiate Academy, due to open in Fall 2009) the Boston school district has maxed out this "9% cap". No new charter schools can open and existing charters can not replicate or expand. Even if they're exceptional. Many other urban school districts in Massachusetts including Cambridge, Lowell, Lawrence, Fall River, Chelsea and Holyokeare also at or near this cap.
Some state elected officials like support legislation to lift this 9% cap to 20% in "low-performing districts" (districts that rank in bottom 10% on MCAS). Here's why:
1) The academic results charter school students have been able achieve are impressive. Many Boston charter schools with high percentages of minority students have outperformed suburban school districts, thereby reversing the achievement gap. Click here for more.
2) Charter schools are in high demand. All fourteen Boston charter schools are oversubscribed. Combined they had 5,649 applications submitted for 1,249 seats for the 2007 school year. Many charter schools have wait lists hundreds - sometimes thousands - of names long. See the video above for more.
3) Charter school leaders, teachers and operators originally from Boston are looking elsewhere to expand. The founders of Roxbury Prep and Boston Collegiate recently opened a handful of wildly successful new charter schools called "Uncommon Schools" in New York City.
4) Through "coop-etition" (cooperating and competing to get the best results for kids), schools are getting better and more creative. Since the Education Reform Act, the district of Boston has opened "charter-like" pilot schools. In Massachusetts a key driver of Mass2020 extended learning time has been the model of charters. District, pilot and charter schools continue to share best practices.
Both major presidential candidates support charters. Mayors in Los Angeles, Newark, Detroit, Indianapolis, New York City, and Chicago have pushed for more charters.
But there is not a consensus in Massachusetts to lift the 9% charter school cap. Despite pleas from parents Governor Patrick did not have lifting the cap as one of his "Readiness Project" initiatives. There have even been calls by some legislators to cut the amount of money charter schools receive in order to operate.
Are you interested in helping parents in the video advocate to lift in 9% cap? If so, here are three things:
1) Contact the leader of the Boston Charter School Alliance, Betsy Diaz at 978 857 9766 or Betsy_masscharterschools.org@comcast.net. Just let her know that you want to help.
2) Keep in the loop by signing up for a regular email update.
3)
Email, call, write or visit
your state elected officials ("Senate in General Court", "Rep in General Court" or Governor Deval Patrick).
