Mitchell Chester, the state commissioner of education in Massachusetts, is a huge supporter of charter schools, Common Core, and PARCC testing (he was chair of the PARCC group). He approved a charter school for Brockton, despite loud community opposition. He recently met with parents at the Brockton High School, and when he mentioned the new charter for Brockton, he was met with boos and hissing. The Brockton charter was not ready on time, but received state permission to open in Norwood, 22 miles away. Chester defended the charter on grounds that it was able to recruit nearly 300 students from the Brockton public schools. Parents were unhappy because the Brockton public schools have seen budget cuts, which they attribute to the charter school.
Brockton High School, which has been repeatedly honored (including a front-page story in the NY Times) for excellence, enrolls more than 4,000 students. The charter school, New Heights, will enroll 315 (not there yet). The thousands of students at the public high school will lose programs so that the state can open a charter school to serve the same community.
If New Heights reaches an enrollment of 315 students by October, it will receive $3.96 million in state and local funds, based on early projections, Reis said.
Brockton parents like Dominique Cassamajor said that money would be better spent on Brockton Public Schools, including the elementary school attended by her 9-year-old daughter, especially when the district is already dealing with a difficult budget.
“I don’t like it at all,” Cassamajor said. “I know people who have kids in the new school, but it’s just taking away funds from Brockton Public Schools. Everybody has their choices. But to me, it’s taking away money from most of the kids. The classroom already has a deficit. That’s why we are doing the Brockton Kids Count campaign.”
So what is the logic in Brockton? Open a charter for 315 kids and take resources from the high school that serves 4,000+ kids?
Diane Ravitch's blog 
For me, that story’s behind a paywall, so I’m moving it here:
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Booed in Brockton — state education head hammered on charter schools
Tuesday
Posted Sep 20, 2016 at 8:49 PM Updated at 1:57 PM
Loud hissing and then booing broke out in a Brockton school cafeteria during a town hall-style forum on Tuesday when the state’s public education commissioner mentioned the charter school he recommended for approval in the city this year. “You can decide whether we judged erroneously or not,” Mitchell Chester said. “You can decide that the demand is not there. The facts belie that.”
By Marc Larocque
Enterprise Staff Writer
BROCKTON – Loud hissing and then booing broke out in a Brockton High School cafeteria during a town hall-style forum on Tuesday when the state’s public education commissioner started talking about charter schools, with the uproar only intensifying after he mentioned the name of one that he recommended to open in the city this year.
One of the problems with the new Brockton charter school that Department of Elementary and Secondary Education Commissioner Mitchell Chester avoided mentioning is that the school did not open in Brockton. It also didn’t open on the schedule it planned. After renovation delays reported at one site in Brockton and a problem obtaining proper permits for construction at a second location in the city, the New Heights Charter School opened 22 miles away in Norwood after gaining Chester’s permission less than a week before the first day of class. Before that, Chester’s department approved a shortened school year to help the new charter school get off the ground.
Instead of acknowledging those problems with the readiness of the New Heights Charter School to open, Chester seemed to suggest the exact opposite for his reasons to recommend the Brockton charter school’s approval in mid-February earlier this year.
“We have very strict criteria for judging whether an applicant or an application is ready to start a charter school,” said Chester, noting that New Heights failed to gain state approval during two previous attempts. “The New Heights Charter School submitted two years of applications and was rejected because we didn’t think they were ready to start a charter school.”
“They still aren’t,” one man shouted, responding to the assertion that New Heights was ready to start a charter school. “They’re in Norwood.”
Chester was speaking in the cafeteria as part of an event to kick-off the school year, which also served as a rally for the Brockton Kids Count campaign, launched by the school district in March to call on the state to provide more adequate funding for public education in the city.
After raising his arms with his palms facing out in an attempt to calm the crowd, Chester continued, stating that New Heights Charter School displayed the “wherewithal to get up and running.” The charter school said previously that it receives private donations raised by the Massachusetts Charter Public School Association and the Norton-based nonprofit Resiliency Foundation, which has long been run by the administrators of the New Heights Charter School.
Chester said that, along with its readiness to start a charter school, New Heights was approved because there was a clear demand for the particular charter school proposal, adding that the charter school’s partnership with Massasoit Community College was also paid strong consideration. Chester said that the charter school didn’t receive approval because Brockton Public Schools are doing poorly.
Chester said there are 300 students attending New Heights Charter School, with more than 200 on a waiting list. The charter school’s plan was to open with a first year enrollment of 315. But on the first day of class, the school’s attendance, according to Chester’s department, was 272. As of Monday this week, there was 297 in attendance at the charter school in Norwood, said Jacqueline Reis, a spokesperson for the department.
“You can decide whether we judged erroneously or not,” Chester said. “You can decide that the demand is not there. The facts belie that.”
If New Heights reaches an enrollment of 315 students by October, it will receive $3.96 million in state and local funds, based on early projections, Reis said.
Brockton parents like Dominique Cassamajor said that money would be better spent on Brockton Public Schools, including the elementary school attended by her 9-year-old daughter, especially when the district is already dealing with a difficult budget.
“I don’t like it at all,” Cassamajor said. “I know people who have kids in the new school, but it’s just taking away funds from Brockton Public Schools. Everybody has their choices. But to me, it’s taking away money from most of the kids. The classroom already has a deficit. That’s why we are doing the Brockton Kids Count campaign.”
Cassamajor said she was not among the teachers and parents in the packed crowd that booed and hissed at Chester.
“I think it was inappropriate,” the Brockton mom said. “I do understand why. But you have to do it in a respectful manner.”
A large contingent from the campaign against Question 2, the statewide ballot vote on whether to increase the cap on Massachusetts charter schools, attended the meeting, including the president of the Massachusetts Teachers Association. The commissioner was pressed about a $100,000 donation given by the chairman of the state education board, Paul Sagan, to the political group that is promoting that ballot initiative. But Chester defended Sagan, complaining that similar scrutiny is not being applied to those on his board who want to defeat Question 2. There were very few pro-charter school advocates in attendance making their presence known.
“We think Brockton Public Schools need more resources to make it stronger,” said Barbara Madeloni, president of the state teacher’s association. “We don’t need to be losing money to charter schools. It’s really clear. The pro-charter proponents put a target on Brockton’s back for years now. Unfortunately, our commissioner refused to listen to the people of Brockton, including the educators and the parents, and has decided that’s he’s going to listen to the special interests.”
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The parent with the 9 year old in a public school should be worried.
When chartermania takes over your state government existing public schools become an afterthought.
I just looked up Brockton High School. They’re big so they have lots and lots of options for students. They can do that BECAUSE they’re big. Once the “sector” is fragmented into two systems all those “extras” will be gone.
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No nuanced, next-generation nonsense appreciated in the city of Rocky Marciano.
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Like packing the supreme court, Governor Baker is appointing charter people every chance he gets. Peyser, etc… and now ”
The Community Group CEO Named to Massachusetts Board of Early Education and Care
Sep 14 2016
Yesterday, Governor Charlie Baker announced the appointment of The Community Group Chief Executive Officer Sheila Balboni to the Massachusetts Board of Early Education and Care (EEC).
Sheila Balboni asked our superintendent in Haverhill to speak to charter school proponents in Lawrence and he said (paraphrasing): “I used to support charter schools but things have changed; public school personnel cannot advocate for charter schools.” This is also the view of school committees (over 100+) and many city councils. Boston politicians are pushing this on the rest of us… When they come out to the “boondocks” an the “hinterlands” from Boston they can’t even pronounce the names of towns — the Town where I lived growing up is Whitinsville and the Boston politicians call it Whitings-ville (in Worcester county).
One of the DFER persons pushing charter schools I understand made his fortunes with opioids/oxycontin…. the epidemic among our young people continues with those “profits” for billionaires.
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in occupied France German occupiers punished the behavior of French students and their teachers … “how inventive these had become in defying them [the Germans] is reflected in the list of crimes which were reported to be taking place; spitting at Germans, ringing the doorbell of the German military police without a good reason, jostling German officers, wearing British or American colors, reading All Quiet on the Western Front, drawing caricatures of German soldiers, singing revolutionary songs, carrying two fishing rods (deux gales — de Gaulle) . the list was interminable , the penalties sometimes draconian.” Saying nothing and saying no… refusing… I will not despair and deny… I will not submit. I used to show the film “Swing Kids” to psychology students at U. MA because many of them had very little knowledge of totalitarianism… (quote is from “Village of Secrets” by Caroline Moorehead. Among my colleagues (not students) i implore them not to use Asperger’s syndrome any more — use high functioning autism or autism spectram. Asperger was one of the doctors who built his career with the Nazis by signing papers committing young children to institutions where they were poisoned and then someone else would sign a death certificate “Pneumonia” . I will not stand by and see brutal politicians like Trump talk about deporting 11 million. I will not give the tests that fail students and assign them to a category to fulfill the bureaucratic requirements of a governor or commissioner of education. We cannot deliver children as identical items of merchandise through a test and punish system.
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