Boston Phoenix Comments Too

The Phoenix also has an editorial on the mayoral campaign debate that's been raging this week over charter schools and BPS. The big takeaway from the perspective of the Phoenix?

"The three-way emphasis on charter schools demonstrates two things.

First, it shows how competition can spur political change. It took pressure from Flaherty and Yoon for Menino to become more welcoming to the idea of more
charter schools.

Second, the fact that three of the mayoral candidates embrace the charter concept is an unspoken criticism of the politically powerful teachers union. Even more than the punishing fiscal realities of today, the union is the biggest single obstacle to making Boston Public Schools better."

Boston Globe: Raise the Cap!

The Globe editorialized today that the state should lift the cap on charter schools to get kids off the waiting lists and to get access to the federal "Race to the Top" funding.

While the Globe doesn't take a specific position on how the cap should be lifted, they do call Mayor Menino and Governor Patrick to task for their timid support for this issue. They seem more supportive of Michael Flaherty and Sam Yoon's proposals.

Seems like there is some momentum building on this issue. Hopefully, Beacon Hill will get the picture and get moving.

Mayoral Candidate Kevin McCrea

In the comments section of one of the Globe articles on Menino's charter school position, Kevin McCrea (or someone posting has him) posted a response:

"All three of my opponents have now jumped on the Charter School movement.
Charter schools are doing some fantastic work around the country and in this
City. A kid who was on my baseball team who lives on Geneva Ave. in Dorchester
just got accepted to a Charter School and his family tells me that they know
that is the only way he will get a good education.

But that is the problem, even when we lift the cap on charters we are tacitly admitting that there are other schools which are failing. Why is that none of the candidates say that they will not tolerate bad schools anywhere in the City? Why have all three of these candidates tolerated these bad schools for all the 40 years or so combined that they have been in office?

The two elephants in the room are busing and failing schools. Raising the cap on charters only slightly addresses getting more kids out of the regular schools and into better charter schools. In addition, there is no guarantee that the kids who need it most will get into those charter schools, instead it could be that many of these favored seats will go to favored people.

President Obama has been impressive in his desire to tackle the big problems. I think we here in Boston can tackle big problems, which is why I want to put good schools in every neighborhood, and then eliminate the busing system which currently wastes about 10% of our resources that could otherwise go towards better
schools, supplies and teacher salaries."

Update: You can find the same post at McCrea's blog, so it seems like it is him.

From Failure to Success

Here's an inspiring article from the Globe about a senior at Prospect Hill Academy who turned her life around and is going to Boston College next year.

Menino Speaks!

Here's a YouTube clip of yesterday's Menino speech on charter schools and performance pay from his website.

OK, I Think I Got It

So now that I've had some time to digest the Menino move more carefully, this is how I understand it:

Menino was frustrated that many BPS schools were seriously underperforming, so a couple of years ago he brokered a deal to increase the number of pilot schools. The BTU balked and stonewalled and new pilots didn't emerge quickly enough as a result. Menino is trying to go around them. (Why now? Seems like politics.)

Menino's new plan would allow him and Carol Johnson to take over BPS schools, turn them into "in-district" charter schools and try to turn them around in that format. The benefit would be that the school would not be governed by union rules so that the Boston School Committee could have more flexibility around using longer days and years. Then, the teachers could choose to reunionize or not at some later date.

Menino does not seem interested in opening new charter schools, just reconsituting old schools as charter schools. However, instead of having other entities (read: CMO's) run these new schools (a la Green Dot's takeover of Locke High School in LA), Menino would like the BSC to run them. This seems like a direct slap at the BTU, implying that the union is the primary problem. Bold statement to attack the union during an election campaign...

Am I missing anything?

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.