See: Governor Patrick Gets an Education
And look at all the kids left behind (but not the tax loot)!
What we all already know around here is they recruit the cream away from the public schools.
"Backers seek end to charter school cap; Ballot item wider than Patrick’s plan" by James Vaznis, Globe Staff | August 5, 2009
The number of charter schools in Massachusetts could increase without limit under a ballot question that proponents will file today, putting a reticent Legislature on notice that inaction on expansion proposals could place the issue in voters’ hands....
Oh, that's the last thing the Globe wants.
The ballot question, if it meets legal criteria and gains the necessary signatures, would go before voters in the next statewide election in November 2010. The language goes much further than legislation filed last month by Governor Deval Patrick....
The ballot initiative process, while lengthy and arduous, has frequently allowed voters to make fundamental changes in state law. Most recently, voters approved the end of dog racing at the state’s tracks and legalized the possession of small amounts of marijuana. Earlier this decade, they voted to end bilingual education. Other voter-approved initiatives, such as public financing of political campaigns and a rollback of the state income tax, have been partially or completely ignored by the Legislature....
While many of the state’s 62 charter schools boast high MCAS scores and college entrance rates, the model has been embroiled in controversy over funding. Every time students leave a local district for a charter, they take with them several thousands of dollars in state aid, which is allotted on a per-student basis. The loss is a painful pinch for local districts, particularly in tough economic times. Boston, for instance, expects to lose about $50 million next year....
Momentum has been growing for more charter schools, spurred in part by President Obama’s threat of not sending additional federal stimulus dollars for education to states that restrict charter school growth.
That helped persuade Mayor Thomas M. Menino of Boston, a longtime charter school opponent, to file legislation this summer that would allow local school districts to open new, district-run charter schools and control the state aid sent to those schools. Several cities - including Boston, Cambridge, Springfield, and Lawrence - have hit or are about to reach the maximum number of charter schools.
“With 23,000 kids on a waiting list, it’s time to allow charters to expand and provide opportunities to more kids and give parents additional choices,’’ said Dominic Slowey, a petition signer who also is a spokesman for the Massachusetts Charter Public School Association.
Charter supporters are filing two versions of the ballot question. Their preference is to pursue one that, in addition to eliminating a cap, would preserve the current funding formula for charter schools. They are unsure, however, if the funding language meets legal muster, so they filed a second version without it.
To gain a spot on the 2010 ballot, a question must first be deemed constitutional by the attorney general and then gain signatures from 66,593 registered voters, or 3 percent of the number who voted in the last governor’s race, by Dec. 2.....
Among those leading the ballot initiative effort are former lieutenant governor Evelyn Murphy; William Edgerly, former head of State Street Bank; and Kevin Andrews, president of the Massachusetts Charter Public School Association and headmaster of the Neighborhood House Charter School in Dorchester.
Thomas Scott, executive director of the Massachusetts Association of School Superintendents, said he is worried that a proliferation of charter schools will not leave enough money to teach the children left in the districts. Many of those students, he said, have the severest education needs and, unlike students in charter schools, often do not have a parent advocating on their behalf.
--more--""Patrick questions charter school OK" by James Vaznis, Globe Staff | August 6, 2009
Controversy over a new charter school in Gloucester is emerging as a flashpoint in a statewide debate over a proposed expansion of charter schools that is now pitting the state’s education commissioner against the governor.
Governor Deval Patrick took the unusual step last week of sending a letter to the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education asking its board to reconsider its approval of the Gloucester Community Arts Charter School in February, after Gloucester officials and residents deluged him with complaints over the approval process.
In that letter, the governor expressed concern that the “deep division within the Gloucester community’’ was erupting at a time when people need to come together to support his efforts to expand charter schools and launch other efforts to overhaul education.
“For any of these innovations to launch successfully, it is important that the community members feel that their concerns have been heard,’’ he wrote.
But on Tuesday, Mitchell Chester, the state’s commissioner of elementary and secondary education, and Maura Banta, the board’s chairwoman, rejected the governor’s request for a revote, arguing that it would be illegal under state law.
Because the charter was granted, the only action the board could take would be to revoke the charter for cause, such as a material misrepresentation of facts, according to the letter, which was obtained by the Globe.
Chester and Banta did not respond to requests for interviews.
The level of distrust in Gloucester over the charter approval is further fanning apprehension among cash-strapped municipalities over the governor’s proposal to double the number of charter schools in districts with the lowest MCAS scores. Every time students leave for a charter school they take with them several thousands of dollars in state aid.
In liberal Massachusetts?
Gloucester stands to lose about $2.4 million, a third of its state aid, to the community arts charter school once it is fully operational. The school is slated to open in September 2010.
Gloucester officials have faulted the state board for not following its own procedures in its approval process. At a Dec. 11 state-sponsored hearing on the charter, no board member attended. A month later, the board retroactively waived a rule requiring board attendance for this particular application. The commissioner also recommended a favorable vote despite a negative recommendation from the department’s charter school office.
In the days leading up to the February vote, charter critics also raised concerns about favoritism because one of the school’s founding members worked at the state Education Department.
I love the smell of CORRUPTION in the CLASSROOM, don't you?
Hey, it teaches the kid a real-life lesson if nothing else.
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And like I said, they RECRUIT!
Governor Deval Patrick has touted his proposed expansion of charter schools as a way to help students who face the greatest academic challenges, such as language barriers and disabilities. But a Globe analysis shows that charter schools in cities targeted by the proposal tend to enroll few special education students or English language learners.
No wonder the RESULTS look SO MUCH BETTER!
That's like insuring only the healthy.
That imbalance raises questions about how much expertise these schools can offer and about their efforts to recruit such students, whose academic needs are generally greater than those of other youngsters....
The figures highlight a long, divisive debate about charter school success that has grown louder in recent weeks: Are many charter schools achieving dazzling MCAS scores because of innovative teaching or because they enroll fewer disadvantaged students?
Not telling us rubes anything we don't already know. Charter schools out here reek of elitism and globalists.
Superintendents, school committees, and teachers unions have long accused charter schools of dodging a public duty to teach special education students and English language learners because those youngsters are more expensive to educate and could drag down MCAS scores. But charter schools say that local districts impede efforts to recruit more diverse applicants by refusing to provide mailing lists of district students, for fear that recruiters will instead go after the most gifted students.
Patrick, who filed legislation last month to double the number of charter seats in districts with the lowest MCAS scores, has urged new charter schools to create student bodies that better reflect the makeup of the area in which they are located, including enrolling students with a variety of learning needs.
Paul Reville, the state’s secretary of education, emphasized in an interview that the legislation would replicate only those charter schools, both here and across the country, that have a strong record with special education students, English language learners, or other disadvantaged groups, such as low-income students. He pointed out that charter schools have been successful in raising the achievement of low-income and minority students, who have generally been well represented at urban charter schools....
Dominic Slowey, spokesman for the Massachusetts Charter Public School Association, said records indicating a low number of special education students at charter schools do not provide an accurate picture. According to Slowey, a significant number of special education students eventually do so well at charter schools that they no longer need special help and therefore shed that designation on state enrollment reports. But he expressed disappointment that charter schools have been unable to attract more immigrant students, despite aggressive recruitment by some schools.
At Excel Academy Charter, which opened in East Boston to serve the Latino community and has achieved high MCAS scores, leaders are baffled as to why their school has few English language learners. Although 70 percent of their students last year were Latino and half were not native English speakers, just eight students lacked fluency in English, according to state data....
Rebecca Cass, the school’s interim executive director, said the school prints materials in English and Spanish, advertises in Spanish-language newspapers, and even goes door to door in immigrant-rich neighborhoods.
Created under the 1993 Education Reform Act, charter schools run under fewer regulatory restrictions, and nearly all run independently of school districts, enabling them to employ nonunion teachers. The freedom is supposed to foster innovative teaching. While many of the state’s 62 charter schools boast high MCAS scores or college-going rates, the state has shuttered a handful for poor performance. In June, it closed Uphams Corner Charter, where nearly a third of students required special education.
Through the years, charter schools and traditional schools have sparred over funding. Each student who departs for a charter school takes along several thousand dollars in state aid, which is allocated largely on a per-student basis. The district schools lose that funding.
Under Patrick’s bill.... districts would be required to share the coveted student mailing lists.
He really stuck it to you public schoolteachers, didn't he?
Some charter schools have emerged as standouts with disadvantaged student groups, Slowey said. At Community Day Charter Public School in Lawrence, for instance, a quarter of students were not fluent in English last year and 19 percent received special education services. The school, which opened to help children learn English, has achieved academic success.
“It’s absolutely essential that charters, like everyone else, face the challenge of educating English language learners and students with disabilities,’’ said John Mudd of Massachusetts Advocates for Children, a nonprofit that works on behalf of disadvantaged students.
“We as a society have to deal with all those students, and we can’t write them off. I think the charter system has to face more broadly the challenge of the neediest.’’
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And the important thing? Can they put a ball through a hoop?
"Obama praises Muslims at dinner for Ramadan
President Obama praised the contributions of American Muslims last night at a dinner to celebrate the Islamic holy month of Ramadan. “The contribution of Muslims to the United States are too long to catalog because Muslims are so interwoven into the fabric of our communities and our country,’’ Obama said at the iftar, the dinner that breaks the holiday’s daily fast.
The president joined Cabinet secretaries, members of the diplomatic corps, and lawmakers to pay tribute to what he called “a great religion and its commitment to justice and progress.’’
It would be nice if you treated it as such, sir.
Obama shared the story of Bilqis Abdul-Qaadir, an invited guest, who broke a state record for most career points as a Massachusetts high school student. “As an honor student, as an athlete on her way to Memphis, Bilqis is an inspiration not simply to Muslim girls - she’s an inspiration to all of us,’’ he said.
Career points at what?
Related: Is the Boston Globe Reading My Blog?
Obama has made it a point to reach out to the Muslim world as president, giving a high-profile speech in Cairo, and issuing a video message - all to emphasize shared values and to make clear that Islam is not America’s enemy.
When you consider where the bombs are being dropped and the unabashed, pro-Israel bias of his government.... pffffffftttt!
