State Debate over Charter Schools Hitting Home in Allston-Brighton
Allston-Brighton TAB
June 4 , 2004
By Todd Morrison
When Elena Nefedova found out about the Conservatory Lab Charter School, a charter elementary school in Brighton that emphasizes education through music, she immediately wanted her son, Dennis, to enroll.
She is very happy with the decision. Nefedova, 34, said that her fifth-grade son has found his niche in the school since starting there in the third grade. She said that after starting at the charter school, he began to teach himself how to play the guitar, and soon after was performing "out of the blue" for friends and family.
It didn't matter that the melodies were simple. And Nefedova said whether or not he will become a musician is beside the point. She said the decision to enroll her son in the charter school has been a success.
"The school gave him the possibility to be very creative," she said.
Schools such as the Conservatory Lab Charter School and the Media and Technology Charter High School, both of which are in the Allston-Brighton area, are part of the larger debate on whether charter schools hurt - or help - the overall public school system.
That debate over charter schools was further stoked months ago when the state Board of Education ignored criticisms and approved five more charter schools for districts adjacent to Boston. One, in Cambridge, faced strong opposition.
The controversy has continued on Beacon Hill, where the Senate and House both approved a moratorium on new charter schools. State senators Jarrett Barrios and Steven Tolman have said they support such a moratorium.
The measure would retroactively put a hold on these five schools as well as any others until July 31, 2005. During that time, legislators would look at how charter schools are funded by the state, as well as any needed changes to the funding formula.
Charter schools currently get about $9,500 from the state for every student that enrolls in their school. A regular Boston public school loses that same amount for every lost student, unless a student takes his or her place.
Anne Wheelock, a Boston College-affiliated researcher who recently finished a study on charter schools, contends that there are distinct downsides to charter schools overall.
"Financially, the charter schools result in the neighborhood schools in Boston having less money to run their programs," Wheelock said. "I don't think that's any secret."
According to Jim McIntyre, the budget director for the Boston Public School district, this fiscal year the state sent about $34 million to Boston charter schools - funds that would have ordinarily gone to Boston public schools. This coming fiscal year that amount will rise to about $40 million, according to the governor's budget. Both figures would have been higher had it not been for the state partially compensating BPS for funds lost to charter schools.
BPS spokesperson Jonathan Palumbo said that budget shortfalls resulted in the closing of five Boston schools last year, including the Harriet A. Baldwin elementary school in Brighton.
Brighton High School is currently at full capacity - over capacity, actually - according to Charles Skidmore, the headmaster of the school. They therefore have not lost any funds to students leaving for charter schools. However, they have lost money due to overall budget cuts made worse by the charter school payouts.
Last year, Brighton High had to lay off nine teaching and administrative positions, Skidmore said. However, this coming school year they are hiring back four positions: one teacher for French and Spanish; one for math and science; one for physical education; and one for social studies.
Mary Street, the headmaster at the Conservatory Lab Charter School, said that the impression that charter schools are profiting off the state funds is wrong. She said they must still fund raise about 20 percent of its budget to make up for the budget gap, and whether the school is financially viable all depends on how efficiently they manage their finances. Moreover, they must find and finance their own building.
The MATCH school has also said they fund raise about one-third of its budget on top of the funds they get from the state.
"The idea that charter schools are flush with money is ridiculous," Street said.
Many contend that the money is better off with the charter schools.
They point to examples like Dana Ruff, who is a senior from Roxbury at the MATCH school. Before coming to the school, Ruff, now 18, went to Thomas A. Edison Middle School in Brighton. Now, he said, he's held to a higher level of academic and personal accountability.
Going to MATCH is a lot different from Edison, where he said he often skated by with Ds or slept in class.
"I was so used to getting Ds because I would sleep in this class, sleep in that class," he said. At MATCH, Ds are not considered passing and if he sleeps in class, he is called on it afterwards.
Alan Safran, the school's executive director, said that if a student received a D in a class, the class must be repeated in summer school. If two Ds are received, the grade must be repeated.
His mother, Nina, said that the school made a lot of "campaign promises" when she was trying to decide where to send her son to begin high school in the fall of 2000: smaller classes; a greater focus on academics; and a safe environment. She took a chance sending her son Dana, but said they met the promises they made. "They didn't lie," she said.
Ruff, who is a member of the parent's council at the school - similar to a PTA - is also impressed with the amount of contact she has with teachers. At Edison, one teacher would call. "Here, everybody calls. Good stuff, bad stuff. They're calling," she said. Her other son attends a pilot school in Roxbury.
Advocates say that charter schools are to be praised for offering innovative approaches to learning, inspiring competition and creating flexibility in a system that has often been criticized as bureaucratic. Most charter schools have an executive board made up of teachers, business people and other community leaders to provide feedback on how the school can achieve the educational standards which are mandated by the state and which charter schools must follow.
"Charter schools are increasing the quality of education by offering choice," said Marc Kenen, executive director of the Massachusetts Charter School Association.
At the Conservatory Lab Charter School, they are able to offer musical education that has become all too rare at public schools.
"In a way," Wheelock said, "why wouldn't parents choose the Conservatory Lab School?"
But critics say that if more money were concentrated in fewer schools, parents wouldn't have to choose a certain school to get the program they wanted, because the local public school would have the money to fund it.
According to the Massachusetts Charter School Association, last year a higher percentage of charter school students scored in the "proficient or advanced" category of every subject and at every grade level, compared with students in Boston's regular public schools.
Critics argue that charter schools may get higher MCAS scores, but that it is sometimes because fewer of their students face some of the obstacles to education that regular public school students face, such as physical handicaps, poverty or learning English as a second language.
A recent article by Boston Globe columnist Scot Lehigh, called "Mass. charter schools deserve to be expanded," countered that charter schools students are actually poorer than the general Massachusetts public school population. The article also contends that charter schools teach more minorities, and that they teach disabled students better.
The article cites Massachusetts Board of Education figures that state 42 percent of Massachusetts public school students qualify for reduced-price lunches, compared with 26 percent of Massachusetts charter schools students.
Critics say that for a fair comparison, you must compare charter schools and regular public schools in the same areas. Regarding poverty rates, suburban public schools will help raise the statewide average, since suburban areas tend to wealthier than inner-city schools.
"The problem is that the majority of charter schools, and the majority of children in charter schools, are in urban districts," Wheelock said.
In regard to the Allston-Brighton area, Wheelock found that:
There are fewer students learning English as a second language at A-B charter schools. 24.3 percent of regular Boston public school students speak English as a second language. None of the Boston charter school students are in the same category.
Fewer students with disabilities attend A-B charter schools: About 19 percent of the students in regular Boston public schools have disabilities. The number was about 14 percent for the Conservatory Lab Charter School and about 9 percent for the MATCH school.
Fewer low-income students attend A-B charter schools, but only slightly: In the Boston public school district, 73.6 percent of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunches. The Conservatory Lab Charter School serves slightly fewer lower-income children than the district average, with 60 percent of their kids qualifying for free or reduced-price meals. The MATCH school had about 72 percent qualifying.
Charter school advocates contend that the money they receive from the state is just following the student, as are the costs. Critics point to statistics like the preceding ones and counter that they are getting the easier students to teach.
The idea that charter schools are "cherry picking," or getting the better students, is something that charter school organizers vehemently deny. The schools are open to anyone, there is no tuition and no screening process. Because of this, charter schools are also considered to be public schools. When there are more students than spots, a straight lottery is held. "It's all the luck of the draw," Street said.
The Conservatory Lab Charter School received about 160 applications for its 132 spots this past spring, Street said. According to Safran, MATCH received about 440 applications for 50 or so freshman spots, possibly reflecting the assertion that charter school students come from families who are more motivated to begin with.
The numbers of students in charter schools in Boston will not grow any more, unless Governor Mitt Romney is successful in his attempts to lift the cap. Right now, no more than 9 percent of the students in any one district may attend charter schools.
Barrios said that the Romney administration's heavy focus on charter schools is wrong. "I'm not an opponent of charter schools," he said, adding that there are some "marvelous" charter schools in the state. But focusing only on charter schools instead of other options like pilot schools - which fall within a local school district but which are given greater creativity and control - effectively limit choices for parents, instead of creating them, he said.
Tolman said the original intention was for the state to learn from the original 25 charter schools, and implement what worked into the regular public schools. "That part hasn't happened yet."
"We don't need a two-tiered public education system," he said.
Both senators say that the state Board of Education has at times granted charters despite major community opposition. Barrios cited Cambridge as one example. However, no significant opposition has been voiced to either charter schools in the Allston-Brighton area, both of which must have their charter approved every five years.
If it reaches final approval, the proposed moratorium on charter schools would also require the state Board of Education to then revisit its application process to make sure such community opposition is taken into account when considering new charter schools.
Wheelock said the problem with equating higher MCAS scores with charter schools' success, is that it only takes into account the students who finish the 12th grade. Students who dropped out along the way are not factored into the score. A parent who's looking at a school that touts high MCAS scores, therefore, has to ask "is this public relations, or is this honest accounting?" Wheelock said.
According to the study that Wheelock did, MATCH had 78 students enrolled in grade 9 in October 2000. All of the students who graduated out of that class passed their grade 10 MCAS - a 100 percent success rate.
However, Safran says that of that class, only 22 are now graduating as seniors; 10 are now in the junior class; and one is in the sophomore class. Safran attributes the steep drop to the school's challenging academics. Receiving more than one D in one grade requires that the grade be repeated - as has happened here, he said. Safran said that students who do stay do so because of the individual attention they receive. Nearly all of the students who left MATCH have gone back to regular public schools, he later added.
Critics say that MCAS are not always the best indicator of how good a school is.
"About a third is no longer with the class," Wheelock said. When you're talking about students passing the MCAS, she said, "Is that the only indication that the school is successful?"
Nonetheless, Nina Ruff is happy with her decision to send her son to MATCH.
"I'm in love with them," she said, but added, "I'm not saying that they're perfect by any means."
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