Citing impact of charters, schools seek changes in choice law

Officials cite high cost of the charter system

School superintendents are renewing a call to change the school choice law, particularly funding for charter schools, as their districts lose money because students leave for charter schools and other alternatives.

With state funding tightening up, the outcry could become a countervailing force to advocates for more charter schools.

"Many communities are struggling to pay for the costs of school, and yet we're supporting a parallel school system," said School Superintendent Roy E. Belson of Medford. "I think we're in a period right now where the school district cannot afford two universes."

Kathleen Flynn, cochairwoman of the Parent Teacher Organization at Andrews Middle School in Medford, said she is not against school choice, but wants to protect the public school system.

"If a school does not offer what a student is looking for, [the student] should have the right to go somewhere else," said Flynn, who is the mother of four students in the Medford public schools. "I just don't understand why we have to pay for it."

But members of a new coalition of business and education leaders say that charter schools are now an established part of the state's educational system and that the districts that send students to them should learn from their success.

"I think what these so-called sending districts have to do is compete," said Paul S. Grogan, president of the Boston Foundation and a member of the coalition. "They have to realize there's a message in the popularity of charter schools."

The economic crisis has given a sense of urgency to the superintendents, who have already seen state aid slashed and who fear that more cuts may be coming. As they struggle for ways to balance their budgets, they see school choice as one place where they spend money, sometimes millions of dollars, on students no longer attending their schools.

In Lowell, district officials say they see the $11.5 million they pay for about 1,025 students attending charter schools as a subsidy for innovative programs, technological resources, and other perks that regular schools cannot afford. Assistant Superintendent Jay Lang called charter schools "private schools within the public school system."

Bills to change the charter school funding formula and make it rely less heavily on regular school districts are expected to be filed by the Massachusetts Association of School Superintendents and the Massachusetts Municipal Association when the Legislature convenes in January.

Geoffrey Beckwith, executive director of the municipal association, called the charter school funding system "fatally flawed" and said "it needs to be fixed."

Under the law, passed in 1993, the sending district must pay when students decide to go to school outside their district. When the student attends a public school in another district, the payment is up to $5,000 per year.

But if the student chooses to go to a charter school, the sending school district pays full tuition, which in Medford is about $10,000.

The state reimburses the sending district for three years, the first year for the full tuition and a decreasing amount in the two succeeding years, but nothing after that. This year, for example, Lowell is projected to receive about $1.8 million. in reimbursement.

School committees can vote not to receive students under school choice, but have no control over whether their students leave for another district or attend charter schools.

The state has 25,000 students enrolled in charter schools, with 21,000 on waiting lists, said Marc Kenen, executive director of the Massachusetts Charter Public School Association.

In 2007, the superintendents association estimated that charter schools had absorbed more than $1.1 billion in state funds since 1995.

This year, Medford is being charged $3.6 million for the 300 students going to Cambridge, Malden, and Somerville charter schools.

Belson said the charge is too high. "I could educate those same kids for $500,000," he said.

The law was intended to spur underperforming school districts to look to charter schools and high-performing regular schools as models for how systems could be run better, but advocates on both sides concede that has not happened.

Christopher R. Anderson, president of the Massachusetts High Technology Council and a former chairman of the state Board of Education, said he believes that the state should facilitate an exchange of ideas about best practices.

Some regular schools do benefit from school choice. The Acton-Boxborough Regional School District, for example, attracted 66 students this year from other districts and receives $330,000 in tuition, said Superintendent Bill Ryan.

Still, advocates say the program should be fairer to districts that lose funds. One option is to reduce the amount paid for charter school students to $5,000, or 75 percent of what the state deems a per-pupil expense, with the state paying the rest.