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

[mzrowan.livejournal.com]

I appreciate the (maybe) news, but this post is long on alarm and short on detail. What is the name of the charter? Who is proposing it? What stage of approval is it at? If we're concerned about it, who should we speak to?

[veek.livejournal.com]

Can you provide any more details than that? Is it publicly filed somewhere? Who is behind it? Where can we get more information?

[gingicat]

What everyone else said. How is it different from the charter school outside of Union Square?

[aroraborealis.livejournal.com]

Are you going for the award for most useless+alarmist post, here, or what?

[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.

Thee 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

I would encourage folks to attend and support our public school system!

[klauspood.livejournal.com]

Yes, as a parent with a child at the Brown School I am very alarmed!

Editorial from the Mayor:

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

[klauspood.livejournal.com]

From the DESE site:

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

[ron_newman]

This is not a useful post without additional information or links. It doesn't even suggest a course of action for people who may agree with you. May I suggest editing the post to add appropriate links?

[talonvaki.livejournal.com]

Disasterous? You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.

[masswich.livejournal.com]

I can't do the whole history of this issue justice, but I can say that for every kid that leaves the Somerville Public Schools for the new charter school, the school system loses far more state aid than should be proportional. The best numbers I have seen to date suggest that the public schools will lose between $2.9 and $5 million a year once a transition period is over.

That leaves behind several thousand students in the public schools with less money to try to achieve better results. Why does the state take resources away from school systems that are challenged? Why not give them more resources instead?

In addition, I have read the charter school proposal (its on their web site, posted below) and I find it very big on acronyms and feel-good statements but short on details. On the other hand, as a consumer of what the state considers a "failing" public school, I see my child thriving.

Some web links

The Somerville Progessive Charter School:

http://www.somervilleprogressivecharterschool.org


Progess Together for Somerville (a group of parents involved in trying to use this crisis to get improvements to the public schools - one part of which is to keep the state from granting this charter this year):

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

[bombardiette.livejournal.com]

A Charter School is a public school. It is not private. It is not tuition based.

SMH

[anyee.livejournal.com]

Is this...trolling? If so, it is very interesting. I find your techniques intriguing and would like to subscribe to your newsletter.

[wardv.livejournal.com]

Some of the people behind this proposal do not even live in Somerville. At least one person lives in Lexington.

The charter school proposal is very easy to push for that person: if the charter school is a success, send your own kids there. If not, not to worry: while you've just wrecked Somerville's school system by diverting a large part of its funding to the charter school, you can still send your own kids to Lexington's schools.

There should be a residence requirement for people trying to pull stunts like this.

[turil.livejournal.com]

If the Somerville school system is failing that many families, and the superintendent doesn't even seem to have any interest in changing to meet these families' needs, then the only right thing to do is to grant the charter.

As long as it's not one of those for profit evil things, of course. :-)

Yes, it would be great to fix the schools that already exist, but with local politics that's rarely possible. Independent schools are far easier to change and mold to the needs of the students who go there.

And yes, the mainstream schools will lose funding, but they will also have fewer kids to serve, thus evening things out fairly well. And empty school spaces can be turned into more open ended community spaces that serve the city even more. Creating maker spaces, continuing ed classrooms (there's a huge shortage of public spaces for teaching in Somerville!), and even funky things like Sprout, Parts and Crafts, and perhaps non-profit incubators.

[derekp.livejournal.com]

I'm interested, but I can't help but feel this is a classic one-sided story as presented. How much of what you say will be lost will actually just be shuffled over to the charter school? Is it that Somerville will lose 60-75 teachers or that somerville will lose 60-75 unionized teachers? Will school funding drop by $5m per year or will funding to unionized schools drop by $5m, while the same amount goes to the charter school? Is the money gone or just reshuffled? Will the charter school serve the same population that the current schools serve or will we be using money from the Somerville school budget on students from other communities? Will the school serve only the best student or will enrollment be open?

I'm not anti-union by any stretch, but this post stinks of exaggeration. If it were as dire as you say, how would it possibly pass? What's the real decision being made here?

[zubatac.livejournal.com]

FYI, Bill Shelton's column in the News seems to cover both sides of the argument fairly well:
http://www.thesomervillenews.com/archives/21276