Education

Boston city councillors file resolution opposing charter school ballot question

The resolution will be addressed at Wednesday's City Council meeting.

City Councilor Tito Jackson is behind a new resolution against lifting the charter school cap. The Boston Globe

August 1, 2016

2 minutes to read

Two Boston city councillors filed a resolution Monday opposing a state ballot question to lift the cap on charter schools.

The resolution, submitted by Tito Jackson and Matt O’Malley, addresses “Question 2,” which would allow the state’s Board of Elementary and Secondary Education to authorize as many as 12 new public charter schools or existing school expansions each year.

“This question is really sadly pitting one group of young people against another group of young people,” Jackson said. “Boston Public Schools helps the most vulnerable students, and, if we really want to close the achievement gap, we should be investing in them, not divesting.”

There are currently 32,646 Massachusetts students on waitlists for admission to charter schools, according to figures released in June by the Department for Elementary and Secondary Education. Of those, 5,557 appear on more than one waitlist.

The issue of expanding charter schools is contentious, especially in Boston, where the district recently faced a large budgetary deficit in part due to a lack of reimbursements from charter schools. The state is supposed to reimburse the district for the cost of sending students to charter schools, but has historically fallen short.

In Boston, the state’s reimbursements covered less than half of the district’s charter school expenses last year, shorting Boston Public Schools $18.6 million in promised funding.

In addition to the councillors, Mayor Marty Walsh has also come out against the ballot question. He said during a recent radio appearance that he would support a legislative fix to the problem, but that the current mechanism for funding charter schools is “broken.” The Senate approved a charter school bill in April, but the House hasn’t acted on it.

Boston will lose $158.28 million to Commonwealth charter schools next year, which is five percent of the city’s entire budget, according to the resolution. But the resolution argues that parochial schools would be harmed by enrollment drains from new charter schools, and existing charter schools would face “unwarranted increased competition,” adversely affecting their ability to provide students access to an education of their choice, according to the resolution.

City Council will vote on the resolution at Wednesday’s meeting.

A previous version of the post misstated Councillor Matt O’Malley’s first name. The most has been updated, and we regret the error.