Just the other day the Globe prints an article on how college graduation rates are up for Boston Public School graduates.  Very few "turnaround" schools have actually been able to turn around despite the massive cash outlays. And now the "reformers" want to take over more schools.  Aren't we actually supposed to be paying attention to the data?  I guess not.  Paul Grogan and the charter crowd DO NOT have the interest of children in mind.  This is all about busting the union by enacting legislation that teachers are overwhelmingly against.

In Grogan's ideal world, we will have two systems--a system of small, boutique schools that have cherrypicked their students and another for the rest of our students, including all Special Education and English language learning students. This is not about 'elevating' all schools to the so-called high level of charter schools. This is about providing a haven of sorts in charter schools for people who are trying to get a semi-private education at the public expense. We will soon have an apartheid-like dual system of schools. Yes, that is the Grogan vision. 

“The inescapable conclusion is that we should not have a cap"... when you want to escape from the hard data, that might be your conclusion, but when you're looking at the publicly available numbers, it's most certainly not.  Charter schools in Massachusetts do not enroll, overall and by a wide margin, the same students as do regular public schools.  Charter schools serve vastly lower numbers of students who are English Language Learners (ELLS) and students with special needs.  Within the subset of students with special needs, charters serve vastly lower numbers of those who have significant special needs.  When students transfer out of charter schools (pushed out? counseled out?), they are not replaced by new students, those who might bring down test scores or graduation rates, the way students are replaced in regular public schools.  All these factors will of course allow charter schools to produce higher test results - the schools are serving a segregated, easier-to-teach population.  Why the heck is the Globe, with its proud history of investigative journalism, not putting a Spotlight team on this?  There are scandals being exposed across the country related to charter schools.  While there are plenty of good, hard-working, and skilled people working in charter schools, there is enough evidence of distortion and misinformation about the schools' success to warrant a decision by the Globe to put investigative reporters on the story.  Enough with the puff pieces and allowing untruths about charter schools to pass for the truth.

Let's discuss charter schools. This article speaks about charter school as if they are a singular completely successful institution. They are not. Many have commented that the charter schools are not serving the entire population but a select group of students. They are not required to provide services for all students, ED, ODD, ELL, ADHD etc. All students can learn but some students require more support services and are therefore more expensive to teach. Charter schools can use policy, lack of services or parental requirements (transportation, weekly parent involvement, and uniforms) to discourage students considered less likely to succeed. Why not replicate the various thriving public school models that have waiting lists. That way, the public schools remain public and service all students.

Around the line and swedgirl--both spot on. As long as charter schools are unwelcoming they will not attract or keep SPED and ELL students. That exclusivity also adds to the charters' 'charm' and desirability to those who want that type of selective environment for their children without having to pay for it.

Another article (marketing by the Globe). For the Charter School Mafia. Boston business leaders are invested in profits from charter schools , not investing in unionized public schools. Charter's are a crony system of the worst kind. The globe has a big investment in the advertisingtheses business leaders provide.. Nuffsaid.

As others have stated, charter schools are creating a two-tiered system of education which will leave the public schools as those who serve only special needs, English language learners, and behavioral problem students.  Is this really what we want from our public schools?  Charter schools may be supported by public monies, but they are not really public schools.  The operate much like private schools deciding who gets in and who gets to stay.  This is not how 'public' education is supposed to work.  To eliminate the cap will be a disaster for our educational system and for society in general.  Let's continue to reform and support the public educational system, its students, teachers, administrators and families.  Profit should not play a role.

The teacher's unions and their paid spokespeople are out in force this morning.

Sooo funny how the same people who advocate and lead the push for charter schools are the same group who will tear down your local public school in an instant. The politcally driven agenda (not kid driven) of those people who lead this charge are the last ones to acknowledge the failures of many charters and the fact is that taxpayers are going to foot the bill, regardless of success or failure. Charters can also enjoy the perks of a private school in some respects, but without the reliance on private funding. Simply put, the kids who are in a cities where charters are, will see funds siphoned from your/their local public school, creating a per pupil expenditure that isnt not equal or proportionate.

Hypocritical at the very least!

Massachusetts schools are #1 in the Nation!  Boston Public Schools is the Number 1 urban school district in the Nation! You wouldn’t know it because the people who stand to make the most money out of privatizing education, are always running their mouths and demonizing urban teachers and urban schools because they feel that a lucrative new charter school market is slipping away from them!

To prevent this from happening, Paul Grogan, President of the Boston Foundation and Marc Kenen of The Charter School Association are launching an effort to raise, or even eliminate, the charter cap in urban areas!  They are not interested in just underperforming Boston schools anymore; they are targeting schools THEY FEEL are mediocre everywhere in Massachusetts! They are targeting urban school districts; you don't see them selling their wares in Weston, Wellesley, or Lexington! You don't see them advocating for more METCO seats in the UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICTS that their children go to school in!  

That said, let's take a look at a school that Boston Foundations President, Paul Grogan has a vested interest in…the Edward Brooke's Charter School; their attrition rate is well over 50%. Out of the 47 students who started in 5th grade, and 60 students who started in K, only 17 students remained to take the 8th grade MCAS! Where did the other 30, 5th grade students disappear too? Brooke's Out-of-School Suspension RATE of 20.3%! What's that about! I supposed it has improved since 2010, when Brooke's Out-of-School Suspension rate was 26.9%! The BPS suspension rate is only 5.7%, and in the whole state of Massachusetts, it's only 5.6%!  Brooke's Truancy Rate is 14.9%! BPS is only 1.8%, beating the state average of 2.5%! Only 42.9% of Brooke's Teachers are teaching in their subject area!  In BPS 97.5% are teaching in their subject area!

Now a graduating class of 17 students isn't really a class, it's a tutoring group!  Even though Brooke claims to have a "4,000 student wait list" it does not "backfill" those empty seats, it would "change their community!" - and their MCAS Scores! Segregation is when you impose the separation of a race or class of people from others or from a main body or group.  This time the segregation is happening to SPED students, ELL students, and students found "not to be the right fit" (read behavior problems).  These charter schools are nothing but segregation academies paid for with public taxpayer funds that drain our PUBLIC schools!

http://bostinno.com/2012/08/14/massachusetts-based-brooke-charter-schools-receives-1-5-million-to-close-the-achievement-gap/

http://charterschoolscandals.blogspot.com/search/label/*Massachusetts

By raising the cap on charter schools, one is also defunding public schools. This status quo of education reform needs to be reigned in. Charter schools were started by teachers unions. Unfortunately, they have mostly been hijacked by profiteers masked as "do gooders". Public schools are hot beds for innovation, yet charters somehow claim this. In Boston we are on the front line innovating lessons and collaborating with an 8,000 strong teaching force. In charters the strong top down policy gives little to teacher innovation. Teachers must "teach" a scripted curriculum and follow the orders of management without any power to speak up for themselves. Charters are in "competition", so collaboration is ultimately stifled. Many charter school vendors have an intense profit drive which overshadows the real goal of teaching all children who live in the United States of America. I say God Bless the United States of America and our Public Schools, which should be lauded and supported not attacked and torn down. Charters swear allegiance to the company, public schools swear allegiance to the idea that EVERY child deserves a well funded, well rounded, innovative, collaborative, education from experienced teachers who have mastered our craft. We want for everyone what we expect for ourselves!

Charter schools are inherently discriminitory by the mere fact that a student must apply and be accepted in order to attend.  The "public" schools in our towns and cities are legally obligated to accept any child that crosses the threshold.  This includes, as it should, students with special education needs, children who do not currently speak english, students with behavioral  or other learning challenges. "Public" schools also cannot set a cap on the number of students it will accept.  This is not the case for charter schools that, in my 36 years as an educator in "public" schools were known to exclude or send back students with various challenges.  The consequence of these issues is that the students that remain in "public" schools potentially and realistically present a more challenging group overall which also realistically creates a population that is more expensive to educate.  This results in inequity in that charter schools recieve the same per pupil amount as the "public" schools with a population that is less expensive to educate.  This also results in inequity in the comparison of "success" of charter school students vs. "public" school students.  Until these issues of inequity are effectively addressed we cannot accept charter schools as legitimate in there own right and we should not continue to fund them much less expand there numbers.