On April 26th, the Committee voted to send the following letter in support of consideration of the RISEAct.
Dear Members of House Ways and Means:
As you know, on Thursday, April 7th, the
Massachusetts Senate discussed S. 2203: an Act Enhancing Reform, Innovation and
Success in Education (also known as the RISE Act) which was passed to be
engrossed, now read as S. 2220. As the bill now rests with House Ways and
Means, the Melrose School Committee urges you to consider its merits, and vote
its passage.
While we don’t disagree that parents should have educational
options for their children, we believe that charter schools should be held to
the same high standards to which traditional public schools are held. We also
believe that all public schools should be funded in a manner that rewards
student success regardless of the building in which the student learns. The
City of Melrose loses well over $2M per year to the Mystic Valley Regional
Charter School, leading to our examination and assessment of this bill.
Although it’s not perfect, there are many reasons we believe it to be fair and
thoughtful legislation. Those reasons include the following:
·
It requires development of an implementation
schedule for the Foundation Budget Review Commission recommendations, which are
critical to providing resources to students as mandated by state law and
regulation.
·
It addresses significant concerns around lack of
transparency into charter school practices, including lack of posted meeting
minutes, public release of contracts, etc. The public deserves to see how its
monies are being discussed and spent.
·
It incorporates local elected officials into a
variety of charter governance areas on behalf of their sending district
students. In addition, it adds a step in future charter application processes
requiring local approval (with an overridden provision by the board), and
subsequently requires that charters disallowed locally but approved by the
board will be funded at the state level (with corresponding reductions in Ch.
70 funding). These elements of the bill speak to taxation without
representation concerns.
·
It applies provisions of the State Ethics Code
to Charter Boards of Trustees/immediate family and prohibits nepotism in
hiring. This requirement is consistent with standards placed on local municipal
employees who are also funded by taxpayer dollars.
·
It supports an opt-out process, which addresses
the concern that only parents with the opportunity and resources to know and
understand the opt-in process may apply for a seat (i.e. self-selection of one
demographic over another in a public school).
·
It requires recording of the reasons for student
attrition, broken down by demographic subgroups, allowing for aggregation and
comparison and made public on the DESE web site. This component provides
transparency around why students leave the schools and why, which allows a
window into the potential for unacceptable dismissal (while traditional publics
enroll and educate all students).
·
It requires that charter schools provide “an
analysis of student and subgroup achievement gaps, including English language
learners and students receiving special education.” This requirement allows
parents a greater comparison mechanism in order to make an educated school
choice for their child(ren).
We appreciate the difficult work you do to improve the
education of students in the Commonwealth, and urge to you to take up this bill
and approve it.
Sincerely,
Margaret Driscoll, Chairman
On behalf of the Melrose School Committee (as approved on
4/26/16)
cc: Cyndy Taymore, Superintendent
