Charters’ funding is the fly in ed reform ointment

Charter schools reduce funding for local districts and jeopardize improvements at underperforming schools.

IT’S IRONIC that, just a week or two before state lawmakers vote on an education reform bill that would lift the cap on charter schools, two applications for charters in Lynn and one in Berkshire County are facing intense community opposition, while two existing charter schools in Springfield and Lowell face shutdowns.

When a sixth-grader at the C.T. Plunkett Elementary School in Adams asked Governor Deval Patrick during a recent visit why public money goes to charter schools, he explained that they are public schools, adding: “There are good ones and not so good ones, just as there are district schools that are good while others are not. We have a funding formula that is not good enough and needs to be fixed so that we’re not taking money away from district schools but supporting education in all different types of schools.’’

Patrick views the reform bill as aimed at “chronically underperforming’’ school districts. He acknowledges that the state lacks the money to support several proposed solutions for the charter school funding quandary.

Parents, students, and educators in four South Berkshire school districts have voiced near-unanimous opposition to a proposed new charter school in Great Barrington. During a nearly three-hour public hearing in Lenox this month, the few who spoke in favor of the Housatonic River Charter School application were organizers as well as several parents and students disillusioned by traditional public education. Supporters of the charter school expressed a need for innovative, experimental programs emphasizing college preparation. John Barry, a Lenox parent with a child in the public school system, called for more choice and competition against what he sees as monopolistic public schools.

During his Berkshire visit, Patrick also went to the Berkshire Arts and Technology (BART) charter school in Adams, which has demonstrated improved academic performance since it opened six years ago.

But Mayor John Barrett III of North Adams, winding up 26 years in office, pointed out that the city’s school system has lost $1.2 million in state support annually during the past three years and had to close a middle school because of BART.

“I don’t have anything against charter schools as such,’’ said Barrett. “It’s the funding of them, that’s the biggest problems mayors have. They were intended for cities, not for rural areas like Berkshire County.’’ He supports the education reform bill, but advocates much stricter accountability standards.

One flaw in the Housatonic charter application is that the four public school districts in South Berkshire are among the highest-performing in the county, and students have ample school-choice opportunities in neighboring districts, all of which welcome transfers.

Basan Nembirkow, former school superintendent in Brockton and Chicopee and now interim superintendent in Lenox, helped block a Brockton charter school application. “Brockton is one of the top-performing schools in the state,’’ Nembirkow said. “The charter school would have cost the district up to $15 million.’’

Like Barrett, Nembirkow insisted he’s not against charter schools, but is critical of the funding formula and the “lack of transparency.’’

“Charter school organizers are looking for a private school with public funds,’’ he argued in opposition to the Housatonic application. He favors education reform that would create better accountability. “If they tighten up and strengthen innovative schools, that would create more opportunity within existing options,’’ he predicted.

State Representative William S. Pignatelli of Lenox, a charter school opponent, insisted that “peeling off public dollars for private education sends the wrong message.’’ Pignatelli called the proposed reform legislation “a charter school reform bill that blows away the cap and doesn’t address funding, or big city versus small town considerations.’’ He believes the state should step in to bolster troubled schools, just as it took control when Springfield, Chelsea, and Pittsfield were drowning in red ink.

Pignatelli and Nembirkow expect the state Board of Education will reject the Housatonic application in February; Barrett is not so sure, citing political pressure in Eastern Massachusetts in favor of adding charter schools.

But the basic conundrum remains unresolved. Charter schools reduce funding for local districts and jeopardize improvements at underperforming schools. Until the state figures out a way to protect existing school systems and ensure stricter oversight for charters, public support for new applications is likely to wane even further.

Clarence Fanto is a Lenox-based writer.