In a surprise move, the Massachusetts State Senate voted 26-13 not to increase the number of charter schools in the state. A similar bill cleared the House by a vote of 114-35 in May. “The Senate proceeded in a separate 9-30 vote to also defeat the underlying bill that had cleared the House.”
The Senate President, Therese Murray said: “In some ways, the vote could be looked at as a reflection of the changing makeup of the Senate that has seen an influx of more liberal members in recent years. Murray said she was surprised by the final tally, and noted that “progressives” voted against the bills.”
“Unions, meanwhile, cheered the bill’s defeat. “We congratulate the Senate for taking a stand for public schools and for public school students, many of whom live in poverty and who need all the resources they can get. The vote against raising the cap keeps resources in our locally controlled public schools where they are most needed,” said Tom Gosnell, president of American Federation of Teachers-Massachusetts.
“Republican gubernatorial candidate Charles Baker issued a statement suggesting the Senate “bowed to political pressure and handed urban families stuck in struggling schools a massive defeat by shutting down access to high performing schools.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
This such great news. Perhaps, we see the opening round of a long struggle to reclaim public school education.
Can you hear me cheering in New York????
There was a strong grass roots effort made to push back on the charter industry’s legislative agenda to increase charter spending in districts rated in the bottom 10% in the state from 18% to 23% of school budget.
Currently the spending is limited to 15% of school budget and authorized to increase to 18% by 2017. But charter expansion causes cuts in public school budgets that harm good schools. Here’s the work of one parent of two girls who are students at the Curley K-8 in Jamaica Plan neighborhood: http://www.universalhub.com/2014/if-you-raise-charter-cap-it-will-close-good-public
Parents who had begun to organize for the mayor’s race last fall rolled up their sleeves, did their research, called their elected officials and visited them in the state house. We took Diane Ravitch’s advice, we got political.
A school committee member in Worcester, Tracy Novick, has been a star activist, analyzing education bills, and even gun bills with school safety provisions, blogging about them, live tweeting legislative debates, and engaging with others on twitter. A school committee member from Arlington is also in the fight for funding public education.
The Boston Teachers Union opposed the bill. Local reporters bemoaned their presence in the halls of the state house but were unfazed by charter lobbyists.
“Massachusetts, had it been an independent nation would have been ranked second in the world, behind Singapore.” ~ Diane Ravitch via @Othemts.
I’m not sure what blinders journalists were wearing before but, I sense they (those who aren’t Fox ditto heads) have evolved in one sense.
In the past they quickly and singularly, identified union involvement in an issue . Now, they put forth a little more effort to identify the business or oligarch source behind the opposing message.
Good crime prevention measure
🙂
TAGO!
Thanks, Ian! Notes from yesterday (for those interested) at the link of my name (above).
Thank you for the work you do, Tracy.
Very good. They are staying ahead of the 8 ball.
As for “families stuck in struggling schools a massive defeat by shutting down access to high performing schools”—-eye roll.
Really? You mean districts with high-performing schools are letting in kids zoned for struggling schools? Awesome job, Massachusetts!
They meant charters, yo. Consider the context of the post. (Eye roll to you too).
Oh. Then I agree with the statement that this is awful news for families stuck in districts or zones with struggling schools. Especially since many of those families aren’t welcome in districts with good schools, even if they have the means to live there.
Tim,
Would you enumerate the things you’ve done to stop discrimination in the housing market?
I’d like to use your list to become an activist. Thanks.
Unless there is fair funding for special ed and english language learners based on the mandates and demands of those programs, charter schools disproportionately take funding from the overall system. Until that is solved, a moratorium on new charter schools is a prudent idea.
it is my understanding, perhaps now dated, that public aid under Chapter 71 flows directly into a town’s general fund: it is not earmarked for education; it is budgeted at the city/town discretion; this aid s often called ‘the pot hole fund’. Historically, the chapter 71 aid formula has never been fully funded. I assume that state payments relating to charter schools are distinct from the general aid in that such funds are earmarked. Like general funding, such charter school reimbursements have not been fully funded. Public School are. therefore, in a double funding bind.
John, Chapter 70 (education aid) is earmarked in Massachusetts so it does go fully to schools, and under our foundation formula, they’d be silly not to anyway, as municipalities are penalized for not funding education at mandated levels; pothole funding, on changes in funding levels, is funded at the discretion of the Legislature and has been inconsistent. Charter reimbursement (which in Massachusetts is 100% the first year, and 25% for the three following years) you’re correct in saying has not been fully funded.
I’d say our double-bind is when the reimbursement is not fully funded (or other parts of the budget are not fully funded), charter schools must always be.
I appreciate your correction. Did the Chapter 70 aid flow into the general town budget in the 70s or 80s?
“Charles Baker issued a statement suggesting the Senate “bowed to political pressure…”, yes! political pressure brought to bare by the electorate rather than corporate money. Isn’t that the way a democracy is supposed to work?
Isn’t it funny how Mr. Baker makes an accusation of supposed political malfeasance as if listening to the electorate is a bad political move?
Let’s remember that Charlie Baker is an entrepreneur, whose views on free market expansion to the detriment of the public sector, closely follow those of his mentor and friend, former governor, wall street guy and hail fellow well met, Bill Weld.
See Sweden’s School Choice Disaster
Advocates for school choice might be shocked to see how badly the country’s experiment with vouchers failed.
By Ray Fisman
Way to go Massachusetts Senators! I hope that legislative members both in Congress as well as the rest of the states take notice.
Let me introduce you to one of our heroes here in Massachusetts. Here are some comments by Tracy Novick of the Worcester School Committee.
“Public ed proponents across the state owe a HUGE debt of thanks to the Boston Public Schools parents who have been using their proximity to the State House to get in there, to tell their stories, and to get the real impact of cap lift across to Senators. I won’t even try to name you all, but you all rock,and you brought this one home. Nice work! ”
“The overwhelming question from those who voted “no” was “what is the end game? where are we going?”
http://who-cester.blogspot.com/
There’s lots more, all first-hand, honest, insightful and immediate. Please note what our legislators are thinking about: they’re asking each other, “What’s the end game?”
You know how I’ve kept asking, since 2009, if democracy and a free press can save public education? I know the answer now. Yes, we can.
Chmtchr: despite our differences in style, good work.
Feeling proud for you and your state.
This is welcome news indeed! And happening just days after the formation of “Democrats For Public Education”, we may see the beginning of “THE Backlash” we’ve been waiting for within the Democratic Party.
In a year that saw the new mayor of NYC savaged and vilified by the right wing media for having the unmitigated gall to approve ONLY 15 of 18 new charter “schools” and sellout “democrats” like the deeply corrupt Andrew Cuomo and the odious Rahm Emanuel and that awful governor in nearby Connecticut, this was a exceedingly courageous vote by the Bay State Senate!
The truly vile anti-tenure decision by the biased, conservative judge in California was the final straw. They pushed things too far and their obvious and naked power grab could.no longer be rationalized or ignored.
We need to all rally around this new push within the Democratic Party and support it with everything we have.
The time is now. President Obama: Are you listening?
“Republican gubernatorial candidate Charles Baker issued a statement suggesting the Senate “bowed to political pressure and handed urban families stuck in struggling schools a massive defeat by shutting down access to high performing schools.”
We who oppose charters have to begin challenging the very first premise of the opposition’s mendacious argument.
Too often, we charter opponents are largely silent when the opposition makes this type of statement. and by being silent we inadvertently reinforce their overall argument.
hers have been around now for more than 20 years. They have had people time to demonstrate how good or bad they are. And the results are in. And it is quite clear that those results are very mixed at best.and overall they have been a net drain on the quality of public schools everywhere they exist in the country.
From now on, whatever a charter backer claims that their schools are “superior” to public schools we need to jump right on that hoary canard and correct that false statement, loudly and boldly for the public record! and do it immediately as in ASAP! Otherwise, it will reinforce the deliberately mendacious narrative that they have so successfully crafted disseminated over the past 30 plus years.
This is very important! I cannot emphasize it enough. I know we have a lot of work to do when I talk to other parents who also strongly oppose charters but will still say things like “Well, I don’t want any more charters in our state even though I know they’ve done an excellent job of educating poor students in poor neighborhoods.” (I refer them to Diane’s last two books and the 2009 Credo study among other credible sources.)
Don’t let them define the terms of the debate. Challenge their first premise. speak the truth and tell them about the evidence from 20 years of results: charter schools, overall perform no better or significantly worse then almost all public schools while draining vital dollars from our public schools that still educate over 90% of our country’s children.
“(I refer them to Diane’s last two books and the 2009 Credo study among other credible sources.)
Any particular reason you’d refer them to an older CREDO study with less data and a smaller sample size, rather than the 2013 CREDO study? It’s not because the later study shows improvement for charters, with big gains posted in states with strong authorization processes, especially by at-risk learners, is it?
Click to access NCSS%202013%20Final%20Draft.pdf
The 2013 study also drops the charters that closed, which biases the sample.