Patrick’s ‘Readiness’ Plan Brings Questions Over Charter Schools

By Matt Murphy, The Sun, Lowell, Mass.

Jun. 12–BOSTON — The first glimpse of Gov. Deval Patrick’s education-reform agenda came in the form of a new model for alternative public schools, but leaves many questions as to what the governor has in mind for traditional charter schools.

The recommendations from Patrick’s Readiness Project, due out later this month, will include plans for so-called “readiness schools” governed by local boards and free to set a wide range of school policies from dress codes, curriculum and teaching methods to the length of school days and years.

The Patrick administration plans to file legislation in January to create these readiness schools with the goal of having the first school up and running by fall 2009 and up to 40 schools operating within four years, an administration source confirmed on the condition of anonymity until the Readiness Project is officially unveiled.

The schools would be encouraged to explore different teaching methods and adapt to community needs. The details of Patrick’s plan were first reported yesterday by The Boston Globe.

Patrick has said he intends to roll out the recommendations as a target for what the state would like to accomplish with education reform before discussing cost or affordability.

The new public schools would combine many elements of state charter schools and Boston’s pilot-school program, limiting the control of teachers’ unions over school policy and opening the door to any student who wants to attend.

Readiness

Project members, however, have also been discussing a moratorium on traditional charter schools in any district that moves toward the new readiness-school model, sources both inside and outside the administration said. No final determination has been made.

“I hope that’s not true,” said Jim Stergios, executive director of the Pioneer Institute. “The readiness schools are similar to pilot schools, and that’s good, but within Boston, charter schools significantly outperform pilot schools. It’s a question of, do we want excellent schools for inner-city kids or do we want moderately better schools?”

Stergios said he would like to see charter schools grow alongside pilot schools and readiness schools.

Union opposition to the proposal could come in the form of resistance to relaxing the certification requirements required of public school teachers and funding for the readiness schools, though many details of the plan are still murky.

Both Anne Waas, president of the Massachusetts Teachers Association, and Thomas Gosnell, president of the American Federation of Teachers, expressed interest in working with the governor on the plan, a good sign for the governor in what could be his biggest political hurdle.

Legislative leaders who focus on education did not return calls for comment yesterday.

The state currently has two types of public charter schools — Commonwealth charter schools and Horace Mann charter schools.

Commonwealth charter schools are licensed by the Department of Education and funded on a per-pupil basis with state money that is then subtracted from local aid to those students’ home districts.

Horace Mann charter schools, however, are funded locally through the district’s annual budget controlled by the local school committee.

Unlike charter schools that are now controlled by the state, readiness schools would answer to the school committee in the district they are formed.

Patrick’s plan would create four ways for a readiness school to open:

–Educators could partner and present the local school committee with an operating plan.

–A school district could convert an existing school with teacher consent.

–A school committee could hire an outside operator to establish a school.

–The state could force a chronically underperforming school to convert.

Stergios, who supports the charter-school movement, said these new schools should be part of a broader expansion of alternative public schools to experiment and discover which model works best.

“I take it as a great compliment to charter schools, because the additional autonomy, flexibility and many of the other examples are learned from charter schools,” Stergios said. “We want to see more experimentation in all forms.”

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