MTA joins opposition to charter school expansions
MTA joins opposition to charter school expansions
'Privately run, publicly funded charter schools remain a scam'
Massachusetts MTA President Max Page and Vice President Deb McCarthy released the following statement in response to charter school expansions under consideration by the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education. Page and McCarthy submitted additional written testimony to the board.
Privately run, publicly funded charter schools remain a scam that hurts the vast majority of students who attend community-governed public schools.
Charter schools are not open to all students, and they siphon millions of dollars from the districts they draw students from, undermining the schools that educate every student who enters them. In addition, the communities losing education funding to charter schools have no say in their operations.
This is fundamentally undemocratic and unfair.
The MTA joins in the opposition to a proposed expansion of the Pioneer Valley Chinese Immersion Charter School. Families attending the school remain critical of its ability to deliver special education services, and adding more students will exacerbate that problem while simultaneously removing resources from financially struggling public schools in the region.
An original intent of allowing charter schools in Massachusetts was to foster best practices in public education. Yet that has proven to be a false premise, as charter operators typically don’t work collaboratively with the districts they draw from. The public is often kept in the dark about charter operations, and it is no surprise that the acting commissioner of education is telling the PVCICS trustees that they need training in the state’s Open Meeting Law as a condition for his support.
The MTA supports the development of public schools that serve as community hubs and family centers, and until a broken funding formula is fixed, the state cannot approve expansion requests or proposals for new Commonwealth charter schools. Only Horace Mann charter schools, which maintain local control, should be taken into consideration.
At a time when public education is under attack across the country and our own state is facing a fiscal crisis in public education, there is no room for additional charter school seats in Massachusetts.
The MTA opposes the proposed expansion of PVCICS, as well as those planned at the Advanced Math and Science Academy Charter School, the South Shore Charter Public School and the KIPP Academy Lynn Charter School. The proposals will further weaken democratic, community control of public education and strip away vital resources from public schools.