Statement from Massachusetts Association of Charter Public Schools

The Senate Ways and Means version of the Education Reform bill contains proposals that will:

--create a separate and potentially unequal funding system for charter school students;

--significantly restrict and stifle charter school growth and innovation;

--establish unworkable enrollment application quotas;

--impose counterproductive rules related to student attrition

An Unequal Funding Formula

The bill decouples approximately 20% of total funding for all charter public schools from Chapter 70 funding, including 100% in first-year funding for new charters, and puts it in a separate line-item in the state budget. This sets up one way to fund district students and a separate and possibly unequal way to fund charter students, who are predominantly minority and poor. This provision will have a chilling effect on new charter applicants, thus contributing a further restriction on charter school growth and innovation. Charter schools must enroll students, hire staff and secure private financing for facilities well before the state budget is enacted to prepare for the start of school. Requiring a direct appropriation to fund charter expansion will ensure an annual fight over every dollar against very powerful opponents. Without an assured revenue stream, based on the Chapter 70 per-pupil funding formula, charter schools will have no choice but to defer any growth plans.

Moratorium on New Charters?

Language in the bill would effectively place a moratorium on new charters. The bill mandates that the first three charters awarded in any given year must be located in districts that rank in the bottom 10% on MCAS. A second provision says that only current successful charter operators can apply for these charters. On average, only two or three charters get awarded each year. Last year, only one new charter was awarded. The net effect will be to severely limit where charters can locate and who can apply for them. This runs counter to the effort to lift all caps on charters and encourage the expansion of educational choice all across the Commonwealth.

If all of these provisions are adopted, the net effect will be to place an indefinite and indelible moratorium on the creation of new charters, and effectively block the replication existing successful charters -- surely an unintended consequence considering the Legislature's stated goal to lift growth caps currently in place.

Demographic Soft Quotas?

Charter public schools already serve a far higher percentage of minorities and low-income families, and an equivalent number of special needs children compared to district schools statewide. Nonetheless, the bill proposes that charter schools set annual goals to attract children from certain demographic groups to apply for their enrollment lotteries to more closely match the demographic makeup of their host districts. If schools do not meet these benchmarks, the state can impose financial sanctions or revoke their charters.

While we agree with the overall goal of attracting more underserved children, the language puts our schools in a Catch-22. Under federal discrimination laws, parents are not required to divulge this kind of information on enrollment forms and charters cannot require this type of disclosure. Therefore, charters would be held accountable for information they could not collect, exposing them to sanctions and charter revocation.

Attrition "fix" will exacerbate issue

In attempting to address the "attrition" issue, the legislation imposes regulations that would actually increase attrition. The bill requires charters to fill vacancies up to the 12th grade. While the intent of this provision is to offer opportunities to attend charters to as many students as possible, the current language would not solve the problem.

If such a policy is implemented, it will be unfair and disruptive to both the students filling the vacated seats and the existing charter students. Students entering these high performing charter schools are usually at least 2 or 3 years behind their peers in academic preparation. This will force the schools to demote the student to a lower grade or hold them back at the end of the year. Many, if not all, of these students, when faced with such an action will choose to return to the district schools thus increasing the attrition rate, creating a churning of students within the school and the district and a serious disruption in the educational environment of these students and those already enrolled in the school.

Furthermore, requiring charter schools to fill vacancies in the upper grades would do nothing to expand the pool of students they serve, since their charters place strict limits on total enrollment. Adding new students in the upper grades would result in a reduction in the lower grades. The net impact would be neutral in terms of opening slots for children to attend charters.

Amendments Filed

We have been encouraged by the yearlong movement by state leaders to endorse the concept of lifting restrictions on charter growth. The Association has filed several amendments we hope will be adopted today that will accomplish what the legislation seeks to accomplish without jeopardizing the funding or the operation of existing schools, or compromise the original intent of the legislation.