Does Massachusetts need more charter schools? Are charter schools truly public or a taxpayer-funded enclave for the elite? Do kids in failing districts have time to wait for their schools to improve?
And, significantly, can already struggling traditional schools afford to lose students — and the public dollars that follow them out the door?
Question 2 — the Massachusetts Authorization of Additional Charter Schools and Charter School Expansion Initiative — asks voters to grapple with these questions.
The ballot referendum would clear the way for 12 new charter school opportunities in the state each year. The proposed law would allow up to a dozen new schools, enrollment expansions at existing schools — or a combination of the two.
If the number of applicants exceeds 12, priority would go to applicants in districts where the need for alternative schools is strongest.
For charter school advocates, the question is a no-brainer. Children in failing school districts should have another choice, argues Marc Kenen, executive director of the Massachusetts Public Charter School Association. He and other supporters argue that childhood is short and kids and parents don’t have time to wait for districts to improve.
“Economic inequality comes from education inequality,” Kenen said at a recent charter school forum at which charter school opponents said Massachusetts has a top-ranked system of traditional public schools. “It’s not acceptable to have the best system in the world and leave so many children behind.”
But supporters of traditional public schools fear the referendum will drain already underfunded school budgets. Massachusetts Teachers Association President Barbara Madeloni said lifting the cap on charter schools would have dire consequences.
“The question is absolutely contrary to the goals of public education, which is to create an opportunity for a full, diverse community to learn together and be able to enter the world and continue to grow our democracy,” Madeloni said.
The ballot referendum would allow the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education to approve 12 new or expanded schools anywhere in the state each year. At the same time, the proposed law says charter school enrollment statewide cannot increase by more than 1 percent of the overall public school population each year.
In Massachusetts, charter schools are funded by tax dollars just as traditional public schools are. But there are key differences: Charters are governed by a self-selected board of directors rather than an elected school committee, and they have the freedom to hire non-certified teachers. Charter schools may forgo teacher unions and offer specialized curricula like languages and arts.
However, the schools are still accountable to Massachusetts educational departments, and students still take standardized tests like the MCAS.
As it stands, 120 charter schools are allowed in Massachusetts, according to the Massachusetts Department of Education. With 78 active charter schools in the state, some see no reason to lift the cap.
But that’s not the only limit, notes Kenen. The current cap allows no given district to spend more than 18 percent of its budget to send students to charter schools, a limit that has been reached in places like Boston, Fall River and Holyoke. Additionally, Lowell, Springfield and Chelsea are coming close to the cap.
There are four charter schools across Hampshire and Franklin Counties. Hilltown Cooperative Charter Public School in Easthampton; Pioneer Valley Chinese Immersion Charter School in Hadley; Pioneer Valley Performing Arts Charter Public School in South Hadley; and Four Rivers Charter Public School in Greenfield. All together, 1,270 children enrolled in those charter schools in the 2015-16 school year.
The limit on the number of students attending charter schools has not been reached in Hampshire and Franklin county school districts. For that reason, Chinese immersion school Executive Director Richard Alcorn said the ballot question would not impact an expansion request his school has made to the state. The school has requested to expand its student population from the existing 472 to 1,144.
“The ballot question doesn’t impact our plans because the communities we would draw from for our expansion are not at the cap,” Alcorn said via email. “The issue central to the ballot question is whether to allow charter school growth in low-performing districts, which tend to fall in the state’s urban centers and also tend to have waitlists for their existing charter schools.”
Unlike urban charter schools that accept students from a two-to-three-mile radius, Alcorn said his school draws students from 39 cities and towns in the region.
“Students principally come because we offer a unique curriculum, not because of any failings in the local schools,” Alcorn said.
Statewide, the demand is strong for more charter school slots. More than 32,600 children are on charter school waitlists across the state. Demand in the Pioneer Valley is relatively low compared to other regions. There are as few as 86 children on the waitlist for Four Rivers, and as many as 343 students waiting for a spot at the Pioneer Valley Performing Arts school. There are 274 children on the waitlist for Hilltown Cooperative and 116 on the waitlist for the Chinese immersion school.
In urban areas like Boston and Springfield, the waitlists tell a different story. There are 2,775 kids on the waitlist for Sabis International Charter School in Springfield.
Because the waitlists are so long in urban areas, Kenen asked voters in suburban and rural areas to vote to help urban residents whose kids are stuck in underperforming schools.
“The needs of these families in our urban school districts are paramount,” Kenen said at the forum. “I hope all of you would care enough about what’s happening outside of Amherst, outside of western Mass., to take a stand and vote.”
And, according to Kenen, even the proposed referendum could not satisfy that demand.
If the question passes, priority would be given to schools in districts where student performance on statewide tests is in the bottom 25 percent of all districts in the past two years. If the board received more than 12 applications for new schools or existing school expansions, it would also give preference to where parent demand is the highest.
Current state charter school laws allow for a higher charter school cap in school districts ranked in the bottom 10 percent of the state, based on student performance scores.
According to a Department of Elementary and Secondary Education report, Springfield ranks second on the list of lowest 10 percent district rankings, after Chelsea. Holyoke is fourth on the list, and Greenfield is 22nd on the list. No Hampshire County towns are in the bottom 10 percent.
According to state education department spokeswoman Jackie Reis, a list of the bottom 25 percent of school districts in the state will not be calculated unless the referendum passes.
The charter school debate centers on financial questions as well as educational ones. When children leave a traditional public school to attend a charter school, the money follows them in the form of charter school tuition.
The tuition figure — usually between $10,000 and $20,000 — is calculated using per-pupil expenditures and varies by school district. The Amherst school district sent $18,788 per student to the Chinese immersion school last year, while Holyoke sent $9,870 per pupil, according to Alcorn.
“We have used $13,500 as an estimate for our average per-student tuition. We don’t yet have final numbers for this year. We try to be conservative,” Alcorn said.
A review of the state’s foundation budget shows that public schools are already underfunded by the state. The Foundation Budget Review Commission determined the gap between the foundation budget and actual district spending on special education and health care costs to be as high as $2.1 billion combined.
According to Madeloni, more charter schools would impose another burden on traditional districts. Leaders of small, rural schools say it would hit them particularly hard.
“One, charter schools are already taking $450 million away from public schools every year,” Madeloni said. “And those schools are already underfunded by a billion dollars.”
According to data from the Massachusetts Department of Education, area charter schools trend a bit higher than traditional public school districts on student performance. Schools are ranked on a “report card” system based on Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) testing. Levels range from one to five, with one being the best.
Hilltown Cooperative, Four Rivers and Pioneer Valley Performing Arts were ranked as level two schools in 2015, meaning the schools meet educational requirements but are not meeting gap-narrowing goals set by the state based on student performance on MCAS standardized tests. The Pioneer Valley Chinese Immersion Charter school was ranked as a level one school last year. Greenfield was ranked a level two district that year.