BOSTON — After voters slammed the door shut on charter school expansion this year, changes to education policy for all public school students are expected to be part of next session’s legislative agenda, Senate President Stan Rosenberg said Thursday.
“There’s going to be a lot of pressure to move to a discussion on education 2.0 focused on 100 percent of the kids, and there will be many other things put on the table,” Rosenberg told reporters in his office, previewing the work that will begin in January.
He said, “Charter schools serve 4 percent of the kids. We’re talking about 96 percent of the kids are still in the traditional public schools, and even if this ballot question had passed you’d be talking about 92 percent of the kids still in the public schools.”
In fits and starts over the last two sessions, the Legislature has taken up bills to reform charter schools and loosen the statutory caps that limit enrollment in the number of the autonomous, privately-run public schools. None of those efforts have resulted in legislation reaching the governor’s desk, and Question 2 – which sought to expand charter access through the ballot – failed with 37.8 percent in favor to 62.2 opposed on Tuesday.
The Senate this session passed legislation tying an increase in charter schools to a seven-year investment in the overall public education system. The House opted against taking up that bill after it became clear that branch leaders would be unable to agree on charter school expansion.
Rosenberg said further reform to the education system is needed to address demographic gaps in educational achievement and funding for local schools.
“Education reform 1.0 worked, but we’ve now stalled, and we still have an achievement gap problem and we still have funding problems in the traditional public schools,” Rosenberg said.
The Senate president answered reporters’ questions on a variety of topics for about 45 minutes in his office Thursday.
Rosenberg advocated for a new focus on Horace Mann charter schools, which need approval from the local school committee, and innovation schools, which have enhanced autonomy, a feature of a 2010 law.
The Senate president, who voted against Question 2, also said charters have a mixed record of reflecting the diversity of the school districts from which they draw students, and he said there are “ample examples” of bilingual and special needs students who he said have been pushed out from charter schools “very gently, but pushed out nonetheless.”
Rosenberg said the “biggest issue” with charter schools is the funding. In general public education dollars follow the students from a district school to a charter school.
Gov. Charlie Baker, a proponent of increasing access to charter schools, on Thursday said he hoped to work on new ways to close the achievement gap.
“I think education will be on the agenda again, and some people will file bills on charter schools but the people have spoken very clearly on charter schools,” Rosenberg said.
While voters rejected an expansion of charter schools, there is still some room for charter expansion depending on the district.
“There’s still a dozen or so charter schools that are possible under the current law,” Rosenberg said.