“I’m advised to speak to parents one time a year about the budget”, said Danique Dolly, principal of City Neighbors Charter School. “Why would we drop the lawsuit”, said Bobbi Macdonald, of City Neighbors Charter School. Several districts, including Boston, Holyoke and Springfield, have hit their caps.
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The future of the state’s nine charter schools is unclear following the state Supreme Court’s 6-3 ruling that found fault with the way the state funds them.
Lawmakers have come under increasing pressure to take action as reports of attendance irregularities, fiscal mismanagement and staff improprieties at a few charter schools have piled up in recent years.
The bill would add 12 charter schools or expansions annually, outside the state’s current cap of 120, with a focus on under-performing districts.
But the bill also goes beyond that.
In addition, the measure would allow charter schools to give preference to students with special needs or who are learning English.
This past year, black, Hispanic and Native American students in Washington consistently scored 15 to 20 percentage points lower than white and Asian students on standardized tests from third grade through high school, according to the state Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction.
“The governor’s proposal continues to punish urban public schools in order to reward quasi-private charter schools”, said Richard Stutman, president of the Boston Teachers Union. The first caucus – which took place on Wednesday – included officials from the Massachusetts Charter Public School Association, the Neighborhood House Charter School, Phoenix Charter Academy and Brooke Charter Schools.
“The city school system has to be willing to open their books and show us the numbers”.
Baker’s proposal still has to get passed the Democratic-controlled Legislature, and it will face opposition.
Create new opportunities for charters to partner with districts in turning around their lowest-performing schools: More effectively leverage the expertise and demonstrated success of charter school operators to close the achievement gap and turn around failing schools by expanding strategic partnerships between those high-performing operators and underperforming district schools.
But according to the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD), federal dollars allocated for Ohio charter schools have not always been well spent.
“There’s no drain from the public schools”, Baker responded, noting that the money follows the student to whichever school they go to. Charter schools are part of the solution of fulfilling demand for more classroom space and providing more options for parents and students.
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But a group of charter schools is still suing the school system for what it calls a lack of transparency about money management and the formula used to calculate how much of the pie charter schools get.
