Romney vows veto of charter school moratorium

Governor Mitt Romney pledged yesterday to veto a moratorium on charter schools, and he challenged lawmakers representing poor areas to support the schools as options for low-income families.

His comments, made during a ceremony in which he awarded licenses to four new charter schools, escalated the battle over charter schools on Beacon Hill. Some lawmakers, whose communities have charter schools slated to open, accused Romney of class warfare and oversimplifying the issue by ignoring their concerns about how charter schools are funded.

Romney yesterday awarded licenses to three charter schools whose futures are in question after the House's vote last week to delay their and two other schools' openings this fall. A fourth charter yesterday went to a Barnstable school unaffected by the moratorium.

The Senate is expected to consider a similar moratorium in the next two weeks. Romney said during the news conference at Roxbury Preparatory Charter School that he is "quite confident" that lawmakers representing minority and low-income constituents would let his veto stand.

"I do believe you're going to see legislators stand up, particularly those that represent urban areas," Romney said. "They're going to stand up and say, `Wait a second. This is not fair, for inner-city kids not to have the kind of choice that wealthier families have.' "

But two legislators who represent poorer areas say they support a moratorium because they oppose the way charter schools take money from traditional schools. The issue, they said, isn't whether they like the charter concept.

"His solution is to take funding away from those poor schools, from poor people that can't get into charter schools," said Representative Daniel E. Bosley, a Democrat of North Adams, one of the state's poorest communities. The moratorium would halt a charter school in nearby Adams.

"If he's advocating taking kids out of poor schools, that means he's given up on those kids that are in public schools that can't get into a charter school. That's a dereliction of duty," Bosley said.

Senator Jarrett T. Barrios, a Cambrdige Democrat who represents urban communities that the governor referenced, said the state should expand other choices for parents before adding more charter schools.

"I'm absolutely supportive of giving parents choices, but real choices for all parents, choices like Horace Mann schools, choices like pilot schools, choices that involve a fair funding formula that helps children," said Barrios.

Romney likened lawmakers' opposition to putting "interests of teachers unions" ahead of parents and students. But Catherine A. Boudreau, president of the Massachusetts Teachers Association, said support for the charter moratorium was a grass-roots effort, not something engineered by the teacher unions.

Charter schools are a tricky issue on Beacon Hill. They draw support from Romney, a Republican, and prominent Democrats such as House Speaker Thomas M. Finneran and Senator Robert A. Antonioni, the co-chair of the Education Committee. The publicly financed, independently run charter schools have been pitted against traditional public schools because of how they are funded: Each time a child moves from a traditional school to a charter school, his share of state and local dollars follows him.

This year, school districts paid $138.5 million to charter schools for 15,884 students. The state currently has 43 Commonwealth charter schools, which operate independently of school systems. It also has seven less-controversial Horace Mann charter schools, which operate within school systems.

Charter schools were created in the Education Reform Act of 1993 and the first ones opened in 1995.

Opponents say the financing formula is unfairly tilted toward charter schools because the money they get from districts includes dollars for expenses they do not necessarily incur, such as vocational education. Proponents say it is fair because school systems are partially reimbursed for money they lose, and because schools should not get money for childen they no longer educate.

Charter schools also do not get state money for construction. Yesterday, the governor announced $4 million in federal money to back up loans for charter schools' facility costs.

Romney spoke at Roxbury Prep, a middle school whose students are all black or Latino and outperformed many schools on the state MCAS test. Charter-school backers, including Pauline Leslie of Lynn, stood behind the governor as he spoke.

Leslie told reporters that her 10-year-old daughter, Danielle Osgood, wants to transfer to the KIPP Academy Lynn Charter School for the stricter discipline and the longer day. But the moratorium might block its opening.

"Now how do you tell a child you can't go to KIPP?" asked Leslie, a single mother who is getting a degree in sociology. "You're going to rip that away from her."

The House-passed moratorium would block charter schools in Adams, Cambridge, Lynn, the Marlborough region, and Salem.