After listening to new Governor Charlie Baker's inauguration address in which he reported there were 45,000 children on a waiting list for a charter school in Massachusetts and a similar reference by Ralph Carrero, the vice president of the Massachusetts Charter School Council. So I ask, why is it that there are 0 students on a waiting list for a Public School in Massachusetts.  Well the answer to that question is that public schools in Massachusetts are required by law to accept any student that comes to them, without exception ( except maybe a felony charge of a violent crime).  Charter schools can choose their students and limit their class sizes now there is an advantage.

The first in a number of posts focused on charter schools and Educational Reform

     The debate over charter schools is no different than other debates in it’s predictable process of presentation with The Globe and other publications limiting their long winded reports to what amounts to the lobbyists for both sides.  The union president wants to preserve jobs for his electorate and the Charter school representatives defends their livelihood.  The problem I see as an educator for thirty-six years in a city on the edge of Boston, is that the public ends up viewing the issue from the top down rather that the bottom up. What very few people except those who wish to know is that, as opposed to charter schools who can determine the limits on their enrollment and choose their students, each public school must, by law, accept every student who crosses the threshold, as long as they satisfy residency requirements.  This condition alone presents a challenge that few in this debate consider. Charter schools will say that they select their students by lottery.  But consider that a parent must be aware of the lottery in order to apply, and if they do not have access to media that would report such an opportunity or on the other hand are unable to read what is presented to them, a whole group of likely under privileged potential students will be left out of the process which begins after the parent fills out an application which, for some, provides an additional impediment. So even if charter schools, as an entity were generally more successful at educating students than public schools, which they are often not, what would happen to that success if those charter schools were required to, as the public schools to which they are being compared, accept any student who crossed their threshold?  And what if charter schools were not allowed to send student back to the public schools, which they too often do?  What if charter schools were required by law to supply comprehensive special education services utilizing the per pupil expenditure they are given, which they are not?  What would the landscape look like then?

     So what we seem to be looking at are two different educational systems.  One that can choose it’s students or at least have a somewhat advantaged pool from which to choose, and one that can, by design, limit the number of students they service, providing an additional advantage.   Who is left in the public school system?  Are these students more or less advantaged than those chosen for charter schools?  I also wonder how many people are aware that many charter schools are run by private, for profit, corporations.  Do people realize that shareholders of Kipp are enjoying profit from tax dollars.  Is this an opportunity for entrepreneurs to make profit from what has, for over 100 years, been a public service meant to educate all children with equity?  The horse is out of the barn.  It seems impossible to go back to a system that served all equally, but we can close the barn door to prevent a stampede that will end up trampling what the United States of America stands for.