More on Menino and Charters

From CommonWealth Online:

Will Menino campaign against the teachers' union?

For many, the phrase "charter school" conjures up images of parental choice and innovation, of passionate young educators taking the place of frowsy, lazy clock-watchers in sensible shoes. So it makes sense to attach the word "charter" to any new educational beast -- and that's exactly what Boston Mayor Thomas Menino, who is running for a fifth term, did today before a meeting of the Boston College CEO Club.

Menino announced he will file legislation to create something known as an "in-district charter school" -- and, if this effort fails, he'll support lifting the current statewide cap on charter schools. Charter schools are privately run, and they are exempt from many of the work rules found in traditional public schools. (The new MassINC research report Incomplete Grade: Massachusetts Education Reform at 15 cites "consistently positive effects for the city's charter schools" and recommends a lifting of the state cap on such schools.)

Loud applause accompanied Menino's promise to support lifting the charter cap, which marks a reversal for the mayor. But puzzled glances followed Menino's mention of in-district charters. "What is that?" one reporter asked another as the mayor made his way off the podium and was joined by Boston Public School Superintendent Carol Johnson.

When speaking to the press afterward, Johnson and Menino acknowledged that creating in-district charters isn't exactly about creating new schools. The idea, instead, is to re-organize low-performing traditional schools under the charter school mantle, and thereby take them out of the hands of the Boston Teachers Union's seniority and length-of-schoolday rules. "We need more flexibility," said Johnson. "We need to put our best teachers and leaders in the places where our students are not doing as well as they need to." She added that the term "in-district charter" doesn't exist elsewhere in the country, at least to her knowledge.
"In-district charters," then, sounds like code for a school department takeover of the lowest-performing schools. After all, the mayor essentially will be asking the Legislature's permission to ignore the contract rules he negotiated with the teachers' union -- not in all schools, but in some of them.

He's also following the money. Menino said today's call for in-district charters and for "performance pay" are both designed to help Boston compete for $5 billion in federal education grants, to be awarded beginning in early fall.

"President Obama and Secretary [of Education Arne] Duncan have told me they want to invest in reforms that turn around low-performing schools," said Menino. "We have been pursuing these reforms and will seek these federal resources." With $5 billion in grants (and a fifth term in City Hall) up for grabs, expect to hear more about charters and performance pay, whether in-district or out.