Area leaders form education coalition

Back Patrick plan, but seek to lift cap on charter schools

Paul S. Grogan is a coalition member and president of The Boston Foundation.

More than two dozen business, civic, and university leaders announced yesterday that they have formed a coalition to advocate for changes in public education, just as Governor Deval Patrick attempts to revitalize the state's 15-year-old education reform law.

The group, Leaders for Education, said yesterday that it is largely supportive of Patrick's proposed Readiness Project, a 10-year plan unveiled in June that aims to better prepare students for 21st-century jobs, particularly in engineering, biotechnology, healthcare, and other sciencerelated fields.

The group favors such initiatives in that plan as increased spending on public education, identifying more operational efficiencies, and boosting salaries of teachers and administrators who work in failing schools and in subject areas plagued with chronic staffing shortages, such as the sciences.

But in a departure from Patrick's plan, the coalition wants to lift immediately the state cap on the number of charter schools - autonomous public schools known for education innovation because they have fewer restrictions from teachers unions. Under state law, there can be no more than 120 charter schools operating at one time, and no more than 4 percent of students statewide can be enrolled in them.

Patrick, before considering such a move, wants to try a new concept called "readiness schools," which would function like charter schools but be overseen by a local school district instead of an autonomous board.

The coalition plans to meet with the governor and other legislative leaders to advocate its positions, and it may hold forums and release position papers on various issues, said Paul S. Grogan, a coalition member and president of The Boston Foundation. A subgroup will focus on the Boston public schools and work with Superintendent Carol R. Johnson, he said.

"The coalition came together out of the belief that we are in a new phase of attempting to improve educational results in Massachusetts and Boston," Grogan said. "Independent civic and business leaders need to be deeply involved. Some things being done will be difficult and expensive."

A similar group, he said, played a critical role in persuading the Legislature to pass the 1993 Education Reform Law. The new group, he said, supports many of those original efforts, especially Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System testing.

Paul Reville, state secretary of education, said in a statement, "We look forward to working with these and other committed advocates for reform, and we welcome the sense of urgency they have expressed."

The group's chairman is Ronald P. O'Hanley, president and chief executive officer of BNY Mellon Asset Management and chairman of the Boston Public Library.

Other notable members include Thomas F. Birmingham, former state Senate president and senior counsel for Edwards, Angell, Palmer & Dodge; Christopher R. Anderson, president of the Massachusetts High Technology Council and former state education board chairman; Charles D. Baker, chief executive officer of Harvard Pilgrim Health Care; Grogan; Robert Brown, president of Boston University; and Jack M. Wilson, president of the University of Massachusetts.