Lift the Cap on Charters; Extend Management Flexibility to More School Leaders

At a hearing today at the State House, MBAE Executive Director Linda Noonan testified that the Legislature should raise the cap on charter schools and extend management flexibility to leaders of all schools that perform in the lowest 20% statewide.

According to the Massachusetts Charter Public School Association, “Compared to their district school peers, a higher percentage of Massachusetts charter public school students are scoring proficient or advanced in all subject tests at every grade level.”  Yet, more than half of the 29 districts that rank in the bottom 10% academically are either at the cap or have room for only one more charter school. These include large cities and towns like Boston, Holyoke, Lawrence, Lowell, Chelsea, and Randolph, and several smaller communities in Central and Western Massachusetts.

Speaking on behalf of MBAE, Associated Industries of Massachusetts, and the Massachusetts Business Roundtable, Linda testified in support of eliminating the cap altogether on charter public schools in at least the lowest 10% of districts, and stated that these schools should not be counted against the existing statewide cap of a total 72 charter public schools.

Citing socio-economic and racial achievement gaps that are among the highest in the nation, and a growing skills gap evidenced by employers struggling to fill positions with qualified workers and recent graduates without the knowledge and skills to secure those jobs, Linda spoke to the urgent need to increase educational opportunities for all children.

In addition to expanding charter school options to more parents, MBAE and our business partners support extending management flexibility to more struggling schools.  The Achievement Gap Act of 2010 gave principals of Level 4 Schools (those among the lowest-performing and least-improving 2% in the state) authority to hire staff based on performance rather than seniority; to expeditiously dismiss or replace poor performing teachers or administrators; to extend the school day; and to utilize an expedited process for amending collective bargaining agreement to accelerate improvements.  These authorities were instrumental in achieving the gains that have been realized by those schools in the past two years and, therefore, should be extended to all Level 3 schools and below until they reach Level 2.  As of last December there were 288 schools in Massachusetts classified as Level 3, falling in the lowest 20% statewide.

MBAE has consistently argued that to address our most intractable issues – achievement and skills gaps – we must expand on programs and initiatives that have been proven to work.  Charter public schools and the authorities given to “turnaround schools” fit that bill.