A FAILURE by the Legislature to pass key education bills would keep students trapped in dead-end classrooms and risk more than $200 million in federal stimulus funding for Massachusetts.
The Obama administration has made clear that it won’t look kindly on federal “Race to the Top’’ applications in states where teachers’ unions or school districts try to tamp down the innovative charter school movement. In August, Governor Patrick wisely filed bills that would raise the cap on charter schools in the lowest-performing 10 percent of school districts and give the Board of Education the muscle it needs to take control of the curriculum and scheduling in chronically bad schools, even if it requires suspension of collective bargaining agreements.
Applications for the federal funds are due to arrive in November and must be completed within 60 days. Patrick is paying careful attention to federal deadlines, and so should the Legislature.
Lawmakers need to make sure that they understand the long-term costs of raising the charter school cap and other reforms in Patrick’s bills. But the math argues strongly for passage: the state would spend an estimated $45 million for new charter schools over the next three years, which it should be doing even without the prospect of hundreds of millions of dollars in stimulus funds in return.
State lawmakers should serve up these bills before they sit down for their Thanksgiving dinners.
