Jean Haverhill is working to defeat the deceptive Question 2 on the ballot in Massacusetts, which would add new charter schools every year. It’s sponsors claim that new charter schools will “improve public education.” Jean and many parents know from the experience of other states that more charters mean less funding for public schools. She knows that charters undermine public schools. Why create a dual school system?
She commented earlier today:
“Haverhill [Massachusetts] loses 2.7 million in these funds that go to charter; the state of MA loses 400 million (there is a city by city of how much is being drawn off)…. Yes, the ad is deceptive when they say there is “more “money for public schools.”
She added:
I was very proud of the Mayor in Haverhill MA (and school committee resolution and talking with city council on this issue)
Marc Kenen, executive director of the charter school association, and Mayor James J. Fiorentini (Haverhill mayor) at last night’s Haverhill School Committee discussion of a resolution against lifting the cap. [The meeting tape is online. ]
Kenan: [2:09:00]:
We don’t have a traditional school committee like you. Our board of trustees is not elected, like you. It’s an innovative model. It’s a different model, we’re trying something different. [He went on to describe it as similar to the way non-profit boards are chosen.]
Mayor Fiorentini: [2:28:10]:
The gentleman that spoke said, “We don’t have an election, we have a new and innovative way of choosing people to run our schools.” Well, we have an innovative way of running them. It’s called “democracy.”
I wrote and thanked Mayor Fiorentini; we are doing telephone calls and canvassing with door hangers in Haverhill MA two or more days a week if anyone has any time; check your local area; I know Brockton MA has a team also SAVEOURPUBLICSCHOOLSMA.com
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Is this still in question? They’ll abandon the public schools and then insist people “voted with their feet” to flock to the charter schools, which makes opening more charter schools necessary.
This isn’t a “market”. It’s a set of deliberate decisions made by lawmakers.
What parent in their right mind wants to send their kid to the disfavored public system when the entire state political apparatus so clearly has a preference for charter schools?
What’s the role of public school parents? Make sure the public back-up system stays viable to serve the students who are left? Why would public school parents volunteer for that placement in a system?
There were upsides and downsides and the Best and Brightest allocated all the downside to public schools? Hey, thanks! Sign me up!
None of the thousands of political professionals in ed reform even considered offering some benefit to public schools in this deal? Was a single public school advocate even at the table when they cooked this up? It seems like a shocking omission.
Please correct grammar in line 3. Should be “Its” without apostrophe.
No, Pat. You have it the other way around.
“It’s” stands for “It is” and was used correctly by Chiara, as in “It is a deliberate set of decisions . . . . “. And BTW, the “error” was found in line 4 of her comment.
I think Pat was referring to line 2 of the original comment by Diane not Chiara: “It’s sponsors claim that new charter schools will “improve public education.””
Could we all cut Diane some slack and not nit pick over some minor error, glitch or whatever. Most days Diane produces more topics and articles than other blogs produce in months. Most blogs remain static for prolonged periods of time and generate few comments. We are lucky to have someone of Diane’s stature fighting for public schools and their teachers.
Joe, thanks.
I blog often on my cell phone.
When I type its, it usually comes out as it’s.
I know the difference, but my proofreading leaves something to be desired.
Haste makes errors.
Isn’t the artificial intelligence that auto “corrects” and also scores students’ writing on high stakes tests grand. Sorry, *ain’t* it grand. Shirley it is.
thanks for the comment LeftCoastTeacher; I had retina surgery and only have the use of one eye for reading…. The type sizes on these tiny machines make it much more difficult. I have empathy for my students who are wearing the glass in first and 2nd grade.
People should not have to defend their right to have an elected board of education. No matter what buzz words the privateers use such as “innovative” or “reform,” the true intent is always corporate. Do citizens want to put corporations in charge of their children and entrust them with their children’s hopes and dreams? Citizens should understand that corporations always put profit ahead of people!
“Innovation” in our district simply meant “we don’t have to honor union protections.”
It is obvious that the autocratic, opaque, often fraudulent and inferior, child abusing, publicly funded, private sector, corporate charter school movement is a subversive assault on an American democratic institution.
The traditional public schools in the U.S. are community based, democratic, transparent, non-profit organizations that the people pay for. Voting for school board members is the only choice the public needs when it comes to those schools. Without community based, elected school boards, the public has no one to turn to or remove from office when they have a concern of any kind.
How many times has a corporate CEO been removed from a corporation, because registered voters voted them out in local, state or national elections?
OT. My son’s girlfriend just got a job in a public school here after working in a “no excuses ” charter. She told me shei is glad to go where the administration cares about all the kids, not just the smartest. She told me the only thing that mattered to her administrators was high test scores
Please look at this data:
This data is for San Diego Unified school district in California as compared to the Haverhill school district in MA.
SAN DIEGO
No of Students 130,000
Per student spending $10,000
Median household income $63,996
Per capita income $31,343
ELL 30%
Special education 11%
Sunny days 263
Average school rating 7 (great schools)
HAVERHILL
No of Students 7324
Per student spending $12,295
Median household income $60,271
Per capita income $29,899
ELL 33%
Special education ~24%
Sunny Days 201
Average school rating 4 (great schools)
I’m nibbling on the bait here. I’ve been told not to get near the hook but. . .
. . . What’s your point, Raj?
Duane, I had the same question but as (I think it was Carol B who wrote) “if I take the bait I am a fish. I do know that some of our places like Bedford Airforce Base will get more federal funds due to the impact of air force personnel… perhaps they do in San Diego? I know when I taught in Virginia that was the case. The schools near D.C. were well funded because of the impact of the military families and that alters your state’s record on funding the individual town/s cities (and in VA they use counties whereas in MA we use cities/towns about 350). I know this was an old comment but we are facing a brutal voting issue for public schools and I need all the help I cn get… sorry I made that comment about Jill Stein to you personally.
Yes, MA needs help to defeat that charter promoting proposition. Having lived in and having had my oldest son born in MA, it holds a fond place in my heart. Yesterday I “traveled” around my old haunts in and around Worcester via satelite images. Found the houses I lived in. Was wondering if a wonderful little hole in the wall lunch time fish and chips place, Milbury Fish and Chips is still there. A nice little step back in time and memory.
Don’t remember that comment about JS but then I get so many things thrown at me, hey it’s fun, that I don’t even attempt to remember it all-ha ha!
Take care and good luck defeating that ballot issue.
Notice that Raj didn’t answer that one. Not unusual as I’ve asked many questions of many posters and quite a few have never responded. Raj isn’t that way usually and we have corresponded via email. Seems like a decent chap to me.
From AZ where I often feel we’ve lost the battle: “Public Schools” is confusing (and exploited by lawmakers) since charters, too, are publicly funded. What we’re fighting to preserve is school districts with locally, democratically elected boards. Any help we can get clarifying that nationally is appreciated! I include “district” in all my communications.
The evidence is overwhelming and undeniable that charter schools in Massachusetts have been good for kids. The only question is whether anyone cares about kids, or only about what is good for unions.
Let those corporate charters come totally clean and open their books to transparency without any restrictions and then we will see. Until then everything you allege is just that, an opinion regardless of the evidence you base your opinion on.
>>If Massachusetts were a country where would it stand on the PISA ranking.
Much higher than the United States and right next to Germany.
https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2014/07/22/massachusetts-kids-are-but-compared-whom/wunkrFdcqMWP73JzI0hDKK/story.html
>>What about the 2015 NAEP test results?
Overall Performance for Reading
Massachusetts outperformed all of the other states in grade 4 and tied for grade 8.
Overall Performance for Mathematics
Massachusetts tied for first with three other states on both the grade 4 and grade 8 mathematics
http://www.doe.mass.edu/mcas/naep/results/
What the hell are the corporate raiders doing in a state with an education system that clearly dot not need to be replaced and/or reformed that never needed reforming or replacing? The answer is simple: It’s the money, babe!
Show me the statistics that “prove” that charters in Massachusetts are “better” than public scholls, from an objective source. I’ m not going to hold my breath.
“The only question is whether anyone cares about kids, or only about what is good for unions.”
Horse manure!
An irrational false dichotomous choice as you state is absurd at face value.
Thank you Lloyd for stating the obvious, I was waiting for somebody to say that! Let’s add to your list (as noted in Recent Peter Greene post) that MA’s pre-CCSS state stds were considered superior to CCSS even by the folks promoting the latter.
As I matured (no doubt a decade in purchasing for an engr co helped), I came to the conclusion that whenever a trumpeted proposition makes no logical sense, follow the $. The louder the trumpet, the more $ somebody stands to make.
Some of the smartest scholars in the world, publishing in two of the top journals, found this:
We use student assignment lotteries to estimate the effect of charter school attendance on student achievement in Boston. We also evaluate a related alternative, Boston’s pilot schools. Pilot schools have some of the independence of charter schools but are in the Boston Public School district and are covered by some collective bargaining provisions. Lottery estimates show large and significant score gains for charter students in middle and high school. In contrast, lottery estimates for pilot school students are mostly small and insignificant, with some significant negative effects. Charter schools with binding assignment lotteries appear to generate larger gains than other charters.
http://qje.oxfordjournals.org/content/126/2/699.full
We use admissions lotteries to estimate effects of attendance at Boston’s charter high schools on college preparation and enrollment. Charter schools increase pass rates on Massachusetts’ high-stakes exit exam, with large effects on the likelihood of qualifying for a state-sponsored scholarship. Charter attendance also boosts SAT scores sharply and increases the likelihood of taking an Advanced Placement (AP) exam, the number of AP exams taken, and AP scores. Charters induce a substantial shift from 2- to 4-year institutions, though the effect on overall college enrollment is modest. Charter effects on college-related outcomes are strongly correlated with charter effects on earlier tests.
journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/683665?journalCode=jole
There is also no evidence that “teaching to the test” or test prep explains these dramatic results:
mitpressjournals.org/doi/abs/10.1162/EDFP_a_00175#.V64MTPkrJUS
WT,
The most important study of Boston charters was conducted by Tom Kane of Harvard. He included only charter schools with lotteries, but left out those that did not have lotteries. That is, he left out the least desirable charters and studied only the most successful. Makes sense, no?
As I said earlier to Ronan, I would not be impressed by a school that got higher test scores by admitting only the highest-scoring students; or by a school that got high test scores by use of pressure tactics. Charter schools are fundamentally undemocratic, in that they undermine one of our nation’s greatest, most important democratic institutions: public schools.
Ah yes, the great democratic institution of public schools in Boston, where white people had riots and carried signs saying “N***** Go Home” when desegregation finally happened in the mid-1970s.
wbur.org/news/2014/09/05/boston-busing-anniversary
Got any better arguments than that?
The Boston schools today educate 56,000 students in 125 schools. How many students in recent years have rioted and how many schools did those riots effect?
http://www.bostonpublicschools.org/domain/238
And you bring up something that took place in 1974. Something that took place 42 years ago.Scenes like the one you refer to in that era were taking place in cities across America specifically in the South.
1974 Violence in Boston over racial bushing
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/violence-in-boston-over-racial-busing
WT,
Is that the best insult you can muster?
Are you making a case for a return to segregated schools?
Talk about someone who never gets the point, which is that lofty ahistorical rhetoric about Boston public schools is just as misleading as poisonous prejudicial rhetoric about charter schools there.
It is not an insult to point out the actual history of public schools in Boston, as opposed to this romantic (but completely ahistorical) view of public schools there as a great democratic institution. In truth, public schools (both in Boston, and elsewhere as Lloyd helpfully points out) have a long and mostly unbroken history of oppression and prejudice.
On the other hand, I guess that was indeed “democratic,” since most white people were prejudiced and it was only democratic for the public schools to represent their prejudiced views. But that is all the more reason to dislike unconstrained democracy.
In any event, I absolutely dislike racial prejudice. I disliked it when it was the traditional public schools trying to keep black kids out, and I dislike it when it is the traditional public schools trying to keep black kids from ever having the chance to leave.
WT, how do you feel about segregated charter schools?
When black children and families choose to apply to a given charter school, that is not “segregation” in any normal sense of the word. They are not being forced to go to a particular school by the power of the law (quite the contrary), and neither the charter school nor anyone else is expressing any racial prejudice towards them. In fact, the law, far from showing prejudice towards them, is empowering them to find an alternative environment that they prefer.
This is exactly the opposite of what occurred during official racial segregation, when the law forced black people to stay in schools that they might not have preferred.
This is not Alice in Wonderland. It is irresponsible to use words like “segregation” to mean the precise opposite of what that term historically meant. It historically meant black disempowerment. But if hundreds of black people choose a different school for themselves than what the law previously forced upon them, that is black empowerment.
When schools are all black or all white or all-Hispanic, that is de facto segregation.
That doesn’t matter compared to the racial injustice of trying to prevent black people from having that choice.
WT,
I wish you knew your history. The US Supreme Court ruled decades ago that de facto segregation is as pernicious as de jure segregation.
The southern segregationists were the original advocates for school choice. They knew that if the kids were given choice, white kids would go to white s hooks, and black kids would go to black schools.
There is nothing “progressive” about school choice. It was the rallying cry of George Wallace and many other segregationists in the 1960s and 1970s.
They must be laughing heartily to see who has taken up their banner.
“The US Supreme Court ruled decades ago that de facto segregation is as pernicious as de jure segregation.”
I don’t think that’s correct. What decision are you thinking of?
Keyes decision in Denver
Thanks. I tend to forget about Keyes given the direction the Court took in Milliken and after. I’ll re-read it, but I highly doubt there’s anything in the opinion that could be considered a “ruling” that de jure and de facto segregation are equally harmful — it sounds like the kind of thing that would properly be considered “dictum.” I know the Court has always maintained a distinction between de jure and de facto segregation, and has always required a showing of intentional discrimination to find that school segregation is unconstitutional. I believe some Justices have proposed that certain types of de facto segregation should be the basis for a rebuttable presumption that there has been the segregation was intentional. But the distinction remains. But I will look at Keyes again.
Why do you think that the UCLA Civil Rights Project says that segregation is the highest it has been in 50 years. The Project is not measuring de jure segregation.
Why do you think the answer to that question is relevant to whether the Supreme Court has ruled that de facto segregation is as pernicious as de jure segregation?
The Supreme Court has not ruled that de facto segregation is as pernicious as de jure segregation. However, residential segregation has its roots in acts and laws that would today be considered illegal.
Read Richard Rothstein: http://www.epi.org/publication/modern-segregation/
It is my belief that our society should encourage desegregation and integration in schools and neighborhoods. Charter schools promote hyper segregation. In the south, they have become a form of white flight.
That is completely, 100% false. The US Supreme Court never ruled that if black people are affirmatively given expanded rights to choose different alternatives, then if lots of black people choose to go to a particular school, that is just as bad as official segregation. No one within the justice system would ever say anything as ridiculous as that.
The Keyes decision is absolutely irrelevant. The most that the Supreme Court ever said is that when a state has mandated racial segregation for many decades, just pretending to eliminate the legal barriers isn’t enough (i.e., people are still segregated by all of the state’s previous legal decisions).
What’s going on with Boston charter schools in NO WAY resembles “de facto” segregation in any sense that anyone ought to care about, even out of a supposed allegiance to racial justice that is never seen in any other context other than arguing for black parents to be prevented from having the school of their choice.
Sorry, WT, I wrote a book that included a chapter on the legal battle against de a to segregation. It is a farce. Shame on you for endorsing segregation.
Shame on me for endorsing the freedom of poor urban black people to make autonomous choices, even if rich elderly white people disapprove.
Your opinion is worth less than a teaspoon of fruit loops.
NAACP has requested a moratorium…. this has come through on Diane’s blog recently so I won’t restate it here.
In the cable TV ads they claim “charter schools have eye-catching results”… I have never seen those words in a professional educational evaluation. However,you will get that advice when you beef up your resume for a job interview — be sure to wear a “classy” tie or an “ornamental piece of jewelry” and they probably mean expensive.
this is an amalgamation of comments from two people one in Worcester County and one in Essex County. Both are familiar with how school budgets operate in MA (the latter works in the City Hall) . “We’ve done so much damage to public schools already that it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. First, we have the vocational schools that no longer fulfill their mission. They now recruit the best and the brightest from public schools and do not help those who have problems with academics and need trades. Second, we have charter schools that pretend to be above public schools and sway parents with the notion that teachers are more attuned to the students academic life. Of course, the facts bely the truth. …. since 2014, a lot that simply shows research that demonstrates that charter schools don’t deliver any better education than conventional public schools. These two scenarios are stripping the public schools (I know, both vocational and charter schools are allegedly public schools) and thus creating a falsehood that vilifies the good work that many public schools are doing. Another fallacy that implies that the people (parents) should have the right to choose when in actuality they don’t really know the differences” (the City Hall person clearly understood that the vocational/technical schools have their own budget process separate from k-12…. I was so pleased because not many taxpayers would know that.
this is another person from Worcester County (Ruth) She gave me permission to use her comments. “the brilliance behind the public schools corporate profiteers, was to buy enough poverty pimps from both major political parties to do their bidding. This was displayed when Republican Governor Charlie Baker and Democrat Boston Mayor Marty Walsh together at the State House gave testimony in favor of lifting the cap on Charter schools. As is customary in these hearings, the proponents are given time to give their propaganda filled with false claims of how this choice is better than “those failing public schools”, then they leave and never listen to the other side. But, I did have my say with Mayor Walsh outside the room, when I followed him and caught up to him and said, “Mayor, I worked hard to get you elected, asked my public school teacher friends to support you, many hung your signs and voted for you, but today you have shown to be a big disappointment, I am disapoointed in you”. He replied, “Please Ruth don’t be disappointed, let’s talk”, as he hurried along.” (I know her meaning of the phrase poverty pimps; although I would not use it myself I understand her use of the term in this context. They coerce and co-opt people to vote against their own interests ).
I know I have written this before but when you live in the “boonies” or the “hinterlands” in MA (outside the 128 belt) the Boston governmental personnel share documents that say those “cities no longer have a functional purpose”…. this is a big reason why there are so many inequities among and between our 350 school districts (and when we try regional/county system a new set of problems shows up).
“It’s CALLED democracy”
Abraham Lincoln characterized democratic government as “government of the people, by the people, for the people.” Democratic government is about public purposes.”
“This is the great advance of democratic government. Other forms of government serve the few at the expense of the many, and their resources are marshaled to serve the private purposes of those on whom government has bestowed privilege.”
“The most fundamental feature of democratic government is equality under the law. Equality under the law means that none can be viewed as having greater right under the law than others. This principle is captured by the following:
What government does for one, it should do for all, and what government does not do for all it should do for none.”
thank you for this comment; I save them all. I have another favorite about Lincoln that I read in a Jay Winik book. He said Abe Lincoln did not want to repeat the French Revolution in the U.S. Civil War …. he was looking for a resolution to some of the issues/problems the country was facing and I still respect his judgment.
NoBrick…. could you embellish on your comment and put something on the DFER page in MA? They are capturing the Mayor of boston (maybe he has been bought out.. I just don’t know; but I call him co-opted). a lot of parents probably see that page from DFER….
What seems to be lost in all of this debating is that it is the state’s responsibility to provide adequate education for all students. That is the starting point. After that, well, how it is to be accomplished is another question. Historically, it has been the community in cooperation with the state to provide public education.
“What seems to be lost in all of this debating is that it is the state’s responsibility to provide adequate education for all students. That is the starting point. ” I certainly agree: that is why it is so foolish when Stephen Lynch (representative from District9) says they cannot find a decent school in his entire district. Doesn’t that fall back on the Commissioner, the legislature, the Governor and the Board of Ed? How come they are not accountable (if Lynch is correct in his opinion)….??? it’s much easier to blame the unions, blame the teachers, blame the “feckless parents and unmotivated kids”. We see something similar with MBTA TRANSPORTATION…. when they say the solution is hiring privatized company to provide custodial services all the time paying out fees to the Corporate (I think it is spelled Keolis) but I try to keep all my attention on education — I see similar blaming patterns from the Governor’s office . So I write to the Governor and say “forget the hugfestaround the Christmas with Tom Brady (the Trump supported)… Pay attention and do your job .
coming up in March… SREE Expanding the Toolkit: Maximizing Relevance, Effectiveness and Rigor in Education Research
The meeting will run from Wednesday, March 1-Saturday, March 4, 2017 in Washington, DC, with a focus on how innovations in research design and analysis, as well as models for creating and sustaining partnerships and implementation paths, may enhance the utility of education research. Cybele Raver chairs the Program Committee.
Conference Sections and Section Chairs are:
Social and Emotional Learning in Educational Settings: Jason Downer
Classroom Instruction: Nonie Lesaux
Effects of Educational Policies: Diane Schanzenbach
Research to Practice: Rekha Balu
Education and Life Cycle Transitions: Jonathan Smith
Educational Effectiveness in Global and Immigration-Related Contexts: Hiro Yoshikawa
Research Methods: Jessaca Spybrook
Why do I post it here? because Nonie Lesaux is influential in early childhood. I have made comments on her articles at WBUR ….. she tends to say our schools in MA are not good and she knows a better way.
Also, this is where Mitchell Chester went in 2016 to compel people to go along with Jeb Bush’s strategies, embed Michael Barber’s implementation protocols and honor Harvard (for whatever reason i thinks it is “the best” )…. but at BU and Northeastern we always had that attitude from Harvard.
I probably won’ attend the SREE conference (and I don’t imagine teachers could anyway) but I will denitiely scan to see what these individuals are saying and writing.