Parent Imperfect explains why he doesn't think much of the "third way" proposal by state Sen. Sonia Chang-Diaz and state Rep. Russell Holmes to lift the cap on charter schools.
If charter schools are a safety valve, then they make for an expensive and leaky valve at a time when urban districts like the BPS are under tremendous budget pressure. Rather than divert resources to a separate system of schools with precious little accountability, let’s focus our efforts on changing the way business is done at Court Street and on continuing to improve Boston’s schools, one at a time. I just don’t see an alternative if we want to offer Boston’s students great educations choices. Step one along this path will be the selection of a new Boston School Superintendent who understands the problems faced by the BPS, and possesses a vision that can mobilize all stakeholders to tackle those problems.
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Comments
Didn't the Haley expansion....
By Michael Kerpan
Mon, 03/24/2014 - 12:07pm
... do some cannibalizing of the budgets of surrowunding schools? (At least that's what I seem to recall).
I think so, yes.
By anon
Mon, 03/24/2014 - 12:22pm
People have put a ton of time and effort into the Irving Pathway, a program to improve the Irving (and its reputation) so Roslindale families would feel like they had something like a k-8 path in their neighborhood. Now the Haley opted out, so those kids will instead stay at the Haley, along with their funding. I don't know if the Irving attendance will now drop correspondingly, but I think so because aren't the middle schools undersubscribed?
Angry about the budget cuts?
By BPS parent
Mon, 03/24/2014 - 11:32am
Join us at the State House tomorrow, Tues Mar 25, at 4:30
grow up and read
By Stevil
Mon, 03/24/2014 - 12:41pm
There are NO BUDGET CUTS. The city is saying they can't afford 6-10% cost increases. Stop arguing for more money and ask them why the hell costs are spiraling out of control for a system has decreasing student population.
You are playing right into their hands. this is what they want you to do but they are full of crap. They are getting a 4.x % increase - which for a smaller system translates to a high single digit increase. If they can't afford that it's not due to a lack of money -it's due to mismanagement.
Stop using CPI as the benchmark
By HenryAlan
Mon, 03/24/2014 - 11:35pm
You keep saying there is no cut because absolute dollar amounts are set to increase by more than inflation. But there are many costs associated with a labor intensive budget that are rising faster (hint: health care).
You can't simply look at the Consumer Price Index and assume that the schools' budgets should rise accordingly. Maybe if you were actually involved with one of the schools, you could better understand the impact, but the issue regards "discretionary" items like art, music, and school supplies. Funding for these things are absolutely being cut, and if you don't believe that, then you must not know anybody involved with the actual schools.
Show me the cuts
By Stevil
Tue, 03/25/2014 - 7:58am
The CPI is jus an index as a means of comparison - broadly used to make sure your income is keeping up with inflation (and in the real world health care and other employment related expenses all count - health care - thanks to a moderating and a slight tweak to the benefits formula isn't that big a deal in the last few years - I think it even went down one year).
More importantly -
1) as pointed out repeatedly - the budget is going up - substantially by most measures - not down as it has almost every year except Fy 2010 - the first budget after the financial crisis.
2) last year we had the most school employees in the recent history of the district - it is coming down 2% this year (probably by attrition)
Seriously - what more do you want. Don't blame the taxpayers if the school district in its infinite wisdom hires lunch monitors and custodians instead of art and music teachers.
Your outrage (in the collective BPS parents outrage) is misdirected - and from a "cuts" perspective grossly inaccurate.
I repeat - there are no cuts - even the very few heads being reduced are needed reductions in capacity - not cuts.
He knows all that needs to be known....
By Michael Kerpan
Tue, 03/25/2014 - 8:33am
... because he has read the numbers. And everyone one knows that numbers tell us everything we need to know. The purity of numbers would be sullied if one looked at messy, non-numerical alleged-facts. ;-}
Facts
By Stevil
Tue, 03/25/2014 - 8:44am
Like non-existent cuts? Like a budget that has grown - massively and consistently?
So let me ask you back - where do you get "more"
There are only two solutions:
1) new revenue streams - what should we tax?
2) Cuts- where?
Don't just say more and argue that these non-existent cuts are happening - tell me where this magical money should come from?
Like it or not, the entire world runs on numbers - some are financial, some are physics, but the inconvenient truth is that when the numbers don't add up, the system doesn't work.
Separate And Unequal
By Elmer
Mon, 03/24/2014 - 1:16pm
What happens to the children, who through no fault of their own, wind up in the plain-old now-defunded public schools?
It just seems unfair, and un-American; the privatized charter schools create a class distinction, dividing up the next generation at an early age. The whole idea just doesn't seem right to me.
Or you know, read a bit
By anon
Mon, 03/24/2014 - 1:28pm
and you'll find that what you are describing isn't happening at all.
Go to the Brooke, get a tour and then tell me about what the class distinction is at that charter school. It's not a predominantly middle-class school. Whatever the problems are with charter schools, class isn't one of them.
I'd bet a ton of money that the biggest class distinction in BPS/charter schools is between AWC and regular ed. How many of the active BPS parents on this topic had AWC kids? I'd guess most of them.
No, That's Not What I'm Saying ...
By Elmer
Mon, 03/24/2014 - 2:00pm
... I know that charter schools themselves are not class distinctive, but I'm concerned about the children who can't attend a charter school. It's not their fault, but they'll be placed in another type of public school, which society is now beginning to judge as less-preferable.
Why should these children receive a "second rate" education, when both kinds of schools are publicly funded? It's the different class of education dividing the children.
Isn't that already happening?
By Sally
Mon, 03/24/2014 - 2:09pm
I hear you but if you think that's not the existing state of things, with middle-class, aspiring parents scrambling like musical chairs for spots in overcrowded "good" schools, vying for a spot in the exam schools, and then everyone else being just SOL, then I think you have to look more closely.
Yes, Sally, You Are Spot On! - No One Is Taking That Closer Look
By Elmer
Mon, 03/24/2014 - 2:40pm
.
I see
By anon
Mon, 03/24/2014 - 2:12pm
It's funny because you could easily be making the argument to expand charter schools - why limit the amount of this better education available? Why deny a successful charter the opportunity to reach more kids. I understand that is not the point you are making though.
I think it is extremely, extremely unlikely that charter schools will expand to the point where they do serious harm to the BPS budget while Walsh is in office at least. He was elected by the teachers unions (among others) and I'm sure he's aware of where his support is. Also, there are legions of passionate BPS parents who are fighting for their side of this (see above comments.)
And yes--very likely.
By Sally
Mon, 03/24/2014 - 2:12pm
In my (admittedly limited) experience, there were a lot of complex class and cultural issues going on between the AWC and the regular ed classes. In our particular school it had less to do, as I saw it, with income than with...idk, expectations, aspirations, which tended to divvy things along racial lines. Our AWC class was full to bursting with children of new immigrants from all around the globe and all pretty much middle and lower income as far as I knew but the regular classes were predominantly African-American and sometimes seemed like a different world. The social pressures and shifts we observed there during elementary and middle school were fascinating, sometimes alarming, often just sad.
And yes--very likely.
By Sally
Mon, 03/24/2014 - 2:23pm
Accidental repost!
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