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MCPSA Press ReleasesCONTACT:
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| MetroBoston | Boston Everett Chelsea |
Cambridge Lynn Revere |
| Springfield Area | Holyoke West Springfield Easthampton |
Westfield Chicopee Springfield |
| Central Massachusetts | Southbridge Worcester |
Fitchburg Ware |
| Merrimack Valley | Lawrence |
Lowell |
| Southeastern Mass | Fall River New Bedford |
Brockton Taunton |
| Cape Cod | Tisbury Provincetown |
Wareham (Cape Cod/New Bedford) |
| Western Massachusetts | Pittsfield North Adams Adams Cheshire |
Gill Montague Greenfield |
BOSTON, Sept. 25, 2007 - A coalition of many of the state's top business leaders, sensing that forward progress on the state's education reform efforts has stalled, has organized in support of charter public schools saying they are essential to education reform in Massachusetts and should continue to expand.
Massachusetts Business Leaders for Charter Public Schools includes more than three dozen top executives from some of the state's most prominent companies and business groups. Their arrival provides a large boost for the charter public school movement at a time when opponents are aggressively promoting legislative proposals to halt new schools and jeopardize funding to those that exist.
“We're here today because we are certain that the economic future of Massachusetts depends on having one of the best public education systems in the country,” said Paul Sagan, President & CEO of Akamai Technologies. “For more than a dozen years, charter public schools have been one of the success stories of education reform. To undercut that progress now would be short-sighted and a setback to tens of thousands of young people today and countless others in the future.”
The formation of the business leaders' alliance represents a new level of commitment on the part of the business community to ensure that the charter public school movement continues to thrive in the Commonwealth. There are 61 charter public schools in Massachusetts, serving about 25,000 students from North Adams to Cape Cod. Another 19,000 students are on waiting lists hoping to enroll.
“In Massachusetts, our natural resources are talent and innovation,” said Paul Guzzi, president and CEO of the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce. “The preparation that our future entrepreneurs and skilled workers receive begins at the elementary level of our schools. We can't afford to risk the quality of that education in any way.”
Initially, the business leaders will focus on two proposals pending in the Legislature: a measure to raise the cap on charters in high need communities; and a change in the funding formula that would jeopardize the future funding stream for charters.
The Business Leaders support a proposal that would raise a cap on charters that now limits the amount of money that districts send to charters at 9 percent. Many districts, including many urban areas where district public schools are underperforming, have already reached the 9 percent ceiling. That means no new charter public schools can be created in those districts, frustrating the thousands of students who are stuck on waiting lists trying to change to a charter public school.
“The funding cap denies parents a choice in the education of their children,” said Rick Lord, President of the Associated Industries of Massachusetts. “In many schools in Boston, Lawrence, Chelsea and other urban areas, low-income students have no alternative but to attend classes in district public schools that aren't working. Their parents can't afford private schools, nor can they afford a home in the suburbs. They need choices.”
Proposed legislation supported by districts would change the way charter school funds are distributed. Currently, charter money flows through the Chapter 70 formula and is based on how much districts spend to educate their students. The proposal would take half of charter funds out of the Chapter 70 formula and place it in a separate line item in the state budget. Charter supporters fear that money will be under attack every year by opponents.
If adopted, the proposed new formula would result in one funding formula for district schools, and a separate and unequal formula for charter schools that serve a far higher ratio of low-income students and almost twice the percentage of minority students as district schools.
“It is impossible to develop budgets and seek the kind of long-term financing that charters must seek to secure school facilities when you are not certain whether half of your funding will be available every year,” said Rick Burnes, Co-founder of Charles River Ventures. “Charter schools are producing measurable positive results for students. Let's not jeopardize a model that's working.”
According to a Department of Education study from just last year, 90 percent of charter public schools perform as well or better than the school districts from which their students come. About 30 percent of charters perform substantially better than their sending districts. MCAS data has also consistently shown that charters are helping to close the achievement gap that separates white, middle and upper class students from minority and low-income students.
“Although the most recent MCAS scores showed some incremental progress in Massachusetts to close the achievement gap, charter public schools have initiated a sea change,” said Charles Grigsby, Senior Vice President of The Life Initiative. “No matter how you cut it, the data tell the same story. Statewide, African-American charter school students, Hispanics, low-income students, special education students and those with limited English proficiency all outperformed their sending districts in both English and math.”
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1. Bill Teuber, Vice-Chairman, EMC Corporation
2. Paul Sagan, President & CEO of Akamai Technologies
3. Rick Lord, President & CEO, Associated Industries of Massachusetts
4. Paul Guzzi, President & CEO Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce
5. Rick Burnes, Co-Founder, Charles River Ventures
6. Paul Grogan, President & CEO, The Boston Foundation
7. Charles D. Baker, President & CEO Harvard Pilgrim Health Care
8. William “Mo” Cowan, Member, Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo P.C.
9. William S. Edgerly, Chairman Emeritus, State Street Corporation
10. Richard L. Taylor, Partner, The Taylor Smith Properties
11. Paul Levy, President and CEO, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
12. Patricia McGovern, General Counsel and SVP Corporate Affairs, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
13. Robert L. Beal, President, The Beal Companies
14. Christopher Anderson, President, Mass High Technology Council
15. John H. Davis, former Chairman and CEO of American Saw & Manufacturing
16. Charles Grigsby, Senior Vice President, The Life Initiative
17. Paul O'Brien, President, The O'Brien Group
18. Ray Stata, Chairman, Analog Devices
19. Mark Nunnelly, Managing Partner, Bain Capital
20. James Mobley, CEO, Neohapsis
21. Kevin McCall, President & CEO, Paradigm Properties
22. Bill Walczak, CEO, Codman Square Health Center
23. Laury Coolidge, Principal, Coolidge, Loring, Wolcott & Coolidge
24. Evelyn Murphy, President, The WAGE Project,
25. Peter Nessen, Principal, CRIC Capital
26. Mark E. Robinson, Partner, Bingham McCutchen LLP
27. Andrea Silbert, CEO, EOS Foundation
28. Tripp Jones, Senior Vice President and Chief Administrative Officer, The MENTOR Network
29. Lovett C. Peters, Founding Chairman, Pioneer Institute
30. Diane Schmalensee, President, Schmalensee Partners
31. Shannon Linde, Executive Vice President, Massachusetts Business Association
32. Ted Burke, President and CEO, Dennis K. Burke, Inc.
33. William B. Tyler, Of Counsel, Rackemann, Sawyer & Brewster
34. Robert Manning, Executive Vice President, Janney Montgomery Scott
35. Matthew Steele, President & CEO, ZRC Worldwide
36. R. Kingman Webster, Executive Vice President and Treasurer, Blue Seal Feed
37. Andrew Balson, Managing Director, Bain Capital
38. John Hurst, President of the Retailers Association of Massachusetts
BOSTON, Oct. 10, 2006 - The Massachusetts Charter Public School Association (MCPSA) has been awarded a $2.3 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education to analyze effective methods of educating at-risk students in low-income Massachusetts communities and disseminate those best practices to districts and other charters here and across the country.
The award will fund a three-year project of identifying 15 high-quality Massachusetts charter public schools serving high-need areas, determining their most effective teaching methods and then sharing those approaches with other charter and district public schools in Massachusetts and across the country.
“This award validates the strong charter public school program the state has developed in Massachusetts and recognizes the success the schools have had in providing educational opportunities to at-risk children in cities throughout the state,” said Marc Kenen, executive director of the MACPS. “Charters have engaged in efforts to share their best practices with each other and with districts. This program will greatly expand those efforts.”
The MCPSA’s project, entitled Keeping the Promise: the Massachusetts Charter School Dissemination and Replication Project, is one of only six being funded by DOE out of 34 applications nationally.
“Keeping the Promise” will use U.S. Census and state academic performance data to identify 15 Massachusetts high-quality charter schools serving students at risk of educational failure in high-need communities. An independent academic research team will work with the Association to document the common elements of success.
Print, video and the Internet will be used to disseminate findings nationally to an audience of educators and policy makers. A book of the successful programs is expected to be produced and a filmmaker is expected to produce a program intended for a possible national television audience.
Finally, the Association will seek a partner to manage the job of replicating the strategies for other charter and district public schools in need of help.
Massachusetts law requires charter public schools to collaborate with district public schools and to disseminate innovative teaching approaches among other schools. Since the charter school program began more than a decade ago, charter public school teachers and administrators have reached out to their district public school colleagues to share their work. The Neighborhood House Charter School in Dorchester, for example, created the “Project for School Innovation,” a grassroots network of public school educators.
There are 59 charter public schools in Massachusetts, serving more than 20,000 students while another 15,000 are on waiting lists to enroll. The innovations applied in charter school classrooms have helped to produce MCAS scores that consistently outperform district school averages.
Last week, the state Department of Education released data showing that several urban charter public high schools scored in the Top 20 statewide. In 10th grade English, 14 out of 18 charter public high schools placed a higher percentage of students in proficient or advanced categories than their sending districts. In 10th grade math, 10 out of 18 charters placed a higher percentage of students in the top two categories compared to their sending districts.
On average, 14.2 percent more charter high school students scored in proficient or advanced categories in English and 11.1 percent in math compared to their sending districts.
Other DOE grant award recipients include the California Charter School Association, the University of Washington, the Colorado League of Charter Schools, the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, the University of Minnesota and The Finance Project, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit.
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