The State of Charter Schools in Massachusetts

The way to make significant advances in the primary and secondary education of our children is really no different than the way we advance and meet the challenges of other aspects of our capitalistic system - through competition!

 The setup of our current way of educating our children, most would agree, has demonstrated over time of NOT meeting the needs of our students. There have been enough disappointing stories about the lack of achievement going on in our primary and secondary education systems particularly in the inner cities where for years lack of school choice has doomed many generations of children. Only now with competition from charter and private schools increasing, are the educational needs of our children finally taking hold!

 We must be willing to increase the expansion of both charter and private schools to apply the necessary pressure for the public school system to make the changes needed to meet the needs of their students in an ever changing society. Waiting decades for these changes will not meet the 21st century ever-changing demands of our global economy. Competition, and not the lack of accountability as exists in public schools today, is what is needed to make significant changes in the way we educate our students. Otherwise, the United States will continue to fall further behind other industrial nations in science, technology, engineering and math.

 You need to look no further than the current situation in Lynn, Massachusetts to see the impact of an entrenched public school system fighting to maintain its educational mediocrity when the school committee recently voted 6-0 for a resolution prohibiting both an expansion of an existing charter school and the creation of a new charter school in Lynn. The reason given – funding and other concerns! Now where have you seen this before?

 The existing charter school, KIPP Academy Lynnis, is comprised of 84% of low-income families and 86% are Latino and African-American middle school students. This school has consistently outperformed the average of Lynn’s public school students on MCAS exams. Catherine Latham, Lynn school superintendent,  says her concerns involve equity. She claimed that if the charter school played by the same rules as other public schools, it wouldn’t be a concern to her. She says that they can operate as a private school and she thinks that is not fair!

 Ms. Latham like all public school bureaucrats think that keeping students in under-performing schools and not making the necessary reforms or changes for better accountability is fairer for her students! Only a true and delusional bureaucrat would believe such nonsense.