With its newest proposal, the Massachusetts Senate is moving closer to striking the right balance for charter school growth in the state.
The Senate doesn’t eliminate the cap that many charter school backers, including the governor, are seeking. Instead, lawmakers focus on where charter schools may make a real difference in the lives of students and their families.
And those students are the whole reason that charter schools are part of the conversation about public education to begin with.
The Senate measure provides more structure when it comes to charter schools compared to the ballot question that seeks to simply lift the cap, without addressing a number of issues, including funding, that has been a significant part of the debate.
Under the bill that the Senate is expected to take up this week, the door will be open to 12 new public charter schools per year, particularly if those schools are aimed at helping students and families who otherwise have no alternative than to attend a low-performing school.
The bill also offers incentives for school districts to create their own charter schools or “innovation schools.” It also would lift the cap for schools addressing “at-risk” students, such as dropouts, those who are pregnant or who might be homeless.
The state wants to assert more direction when it comes to charter schools. This includes getting more parents and teachers on their charter school boards as well as establishing a better enrollment system. Part of the plan would be to require charter schools to take part in the enrollment systems in their local school districts, including an opt-out provision. This is seen as taking much of the mystery out of the existing lottery system that charter schools employ.
The Senate bill, too, recognizes that funding is a critical component here. It presents the plan to increase state education money for charter and public schools alike by $1.4 billion over the next seven years.
That angle isn’t to the liking of people on both sides of the charter issue. Pro-charter forces don’t like tie-in between money and charter growth, while the anti-charter side isn’t happy that these schools will continue to drain resources from existing schools.
But senators behind the bill see that this may be a way to get these two sides talking, if not acting together to advocate for more money for public education.
We’re not sure that those entrenched on either side of the debate will be moved. But there seems to be enough here to persuade people who truly see charter schools as an opportunity where the existing school system has failed.
If passed by the Senate, the House would have to weigh in. And then there’s Gov. Charlie Baker, who doesn’t see this measure as going far enough. Still, it continues a conversation that the state has to have to create sensible legislation.