Proposed new charter school

[klauspood.livejournal.com]

There is a proposal for a new charter school in Somerville. The state (DESE) will be reviewing the application for the next few weeks and will possibly grant the charter on February 28th. If granted this charter school will undermine the existing Somerville Public Schools by reducing school funding by nearly $5 million a year, which is almost 10% of the current school budget. This cut in funding will lead to devastating cuts in public school programs, loss of 60 -75 teachers, and potentially closure of an entire school. This would represent a huge set back for public education in Somerville, setting back much of the progress that has been made in our schools in the last 25 years.

There will be a public hearing by the DESE on this on December 14 2011 at Somerville High School. More info can be found at:

https://sites.google.com/site/progresstogetherforsomerville

http://www.thesomervillenews.com/archives/21168

http://www.doe.mass.edu/news/news.aspx?id=6532

Comments

[thetathx1138.livejournal.com]

Here's my problem:

1) This will take exactly the same amount of tax dollars.

2) It will not solve the stated problem, which is that the Somerville school system, shockingly, does not do that great on the MCAS. Gee, I wonder if that's the school system, or tied to, say, the fact that not every kid in the system speaks English as a first language, or class size, or any of a number of problems that have been found to be major factors in standardized test performance.