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- Mon, Nov 30, 2009, 11:26 P
Holiday Charter School Laundry
I agree that funding is a problem, but I also agree with PaulK that "this should be part of a larger debate about how to best finance public education in general". It's not as if public school funding was great until charter schools came along and ruined it all -- public school funding started having serious problems when a) the state suddenly realized that the boom times of the '90's weren't going to go on forever and started cutting back on Chapter 70 and other funding, and b) local school districts reacted by browbeating local taxpayers into trying to make up the difference, instead of facing up to the new fiscal reality and figuring out how to make adjustments. IMHO. Charter schools and their funding formula have added a new element to the mix, but they haven't fundamentally changed anything.
Because, let's face it -- why do charter schools take money from local districts? The answer is because they take students from local districts, and the money follows the students. Now, the way that happens may well be unfair -- I'm not going to try to defend the current formula -- but I think the underlying principle is basically sound: schools with more students should get more money; schools with fewer students should get less money. Obviously, there are complexities -- if you remove 20 students from a 1000-student district, you lose $100,000 which it may be difficult for that district to absorb. But it seems to me that arguing (as some people seem to be doing) that a district should lose NO money no matter how many students it loses is ridiculous.
If a district goes from 10,000 students to 1,000, it's gotta lose some money, right? And it should have started losing that money long before it got to 1,000. So the question is not "should it lose money?"; the question is when, and how, and what are the factors that determine how much it loses. I think reasonable people can disagree about what the answers to those questions are, but that's the discussion that has to happen.
And I think there are "deaf ears" on both sides. People whose knee-jerk reaction is, "charter schools are bad because they take money from the public school districts" seem no more willing to discuss the money issue seriously than people who say "charter schools are good, and where their money comes from doesn't matter". (And, quite honestly, I really don't know anyone who says the latter -- instead, I see people who choose to ignore the "you're taking our tax money for your charter school, you jerk!" crowd because they don't see the possibility of a serous discussion. Perhaps that will change -- I hope so.)
I'm a fan of charter schools generally, on the theory that choice is good, but I'm an agnostic on this Discovery School. Your questions -- "What is being sold here? What are the benefits other than change ...?" -- are good ones, and I would like to see a discussion of them. But I think the "you're taking money from our schools" charge is a red herring. Not everyone wants to go to GMRSD, and that's not a bad thing -- it's not a knock on GMRSD, it's just a recognition that people are different. The only reason GMRSD "loses" from a charter school student is that that student was counted for GMRSD and the state gave money to GMRSD for them, and then they went somewhere else the money followed them and was therefore deducted from GMRSD. Net result: GMRSD did not get money for a student who wasn't there. If that student had gone to a private school, or was home-schooled, or dropped out, the net result would have been the same -- the only difference would have been that GMRSD would never have seen the money in the first place, so there would have been no need to deduct it, so there would have been no "loss".
At least, that's the way I see it. If I'm off base on all this, I hope someone will set me straight.
- Mon, Nov 30, 2009, 5:48 A
Holiday Charter School Laundry
My second question was worded wrong and had a typo. Here it is again.
First. Will the Charter School be for the entire population of school children in Montague?
Second: Will the Charter School address the education of students with special needs and learning differences?
- Mon, Nov 30, 2009, 5:46 A
Holiday Charter School Laundry
I have two questions.
First. Will the Charter School be for the entire population of school children in Montague?
Second: Will it address the education of special education?
- Sun, Nov 29, 2009, 11:40 P
Holiday Charter School Laundry
And, by the way, it is no longer even a matter for discussion whether or not charter schools added to the mix of educational choices are an improvement. Time has proven charter schools a valuable addition to any community. One has only to visit the Pioneer Valley Charter High School for the Performing Arts in S. Hadley to see this in action. So many of your young people have attended and thrived in this alternative school environment. And in my opinion it is a most excellent use of our tax dollars. Traditional K-12 public schools fill an important roll, but they fail a lot of our students. One only need look at our drop-out rates to see the truth of this.
as jeff says, the only matter for debate is how to best finance our charter schools, and this should be part of a larger debate about how to best finance public education in general. clearly, local property taxes are overburdened at this point, especially since the DESE has continued to add more and more mandates about services the schools must provide. local property taxes are clearly not up to the task, not alone.
it's unfortunate that some members of the GMRSD school committee continue to view charter schools as the problem. i think it just goes to show the limits of their vision.
- Sun, Nov 29, 2009, 11:33 P
Holiday Charter School Laundry
JeffS, keep on keepin' on! I love the part where Ms. Phillips asks the SC for a "legal/ethical clarification regarding participation in the discussion (of the charter school 'issue') by those SC members who are supporting the charter school." WOW, indeed! Way to teach our schoolchildren about Democracy in action and freedom of speech! Yes, let's have a 'discussion' where only my side is allowed to participate. Brilliant!
- Sun, Nov 29, 2009, 10:38 P
Holiday Charter School Laundry
Mike N,
The question I think is about tax money. People can only be squeezed so much before the money stops. It seems as though some of the discussion when it comes to money is landed on deaf ears and the subject is then changed.
What is being sold here? What are the benefits other than change here?
- Sun, Nov 29, 2009, 10:12 P
Holiday Charter School Laundry
maybe the state should take over 100 %.. You folks are NOT looking out for the citizens of our town.
- Sun, Nov 29, 2009, 9:49 P
Holiday Charter School Laundry
stash -
I think you're being very short-sighted with this (along with pugnacious, but what else is new?). Most of the people involved with trying to set up the Discovery School are NOT school committee members, and they are going to keep on doing what they are doing whether SC members participate in the discussion or not.
That's the reality. SC members (and the rest of us) have a choice: we can either recognize that reality and try to work within it to improve education for ALL the kids in Montague, or they can refuse to recognize it and wish that it would just go away (that seems to be your position).
Well, the way I see it, it's not going away, because an increasing number of parents in Montague and across the county and state want more choices and opportunities for their kids, and they're not going to stop wanting those things. Choices and opportunities -- that's what America is all about, isn't it?
- Sun, Nov 29, 2009, 7:21 P
Holiday Charter School Laundry
Thanx for the info Jeff.... Just a question for you.. Why is the Sch. Comm. looking at MORE ways to loose the town money??????? Are you not elected to serve the folks that put you in office?? It's bad enough you folks can't seem to care about the folks that pay the bills, you try to bleed more ......Try saying no.... It's any easy word to say. You should try it sometime.
- Sun, Nov 29, 2009, 5:00 P
Holiday Charter School Laundry
I have been urged not to air dirty laundry on this corkboard but this particular laundry was on television so what the heck.
To the Chair and Vice Chair of the GMRSD School Committee:
Last [Tuesday] night’s “discussion” of Charter Schools at the school committee meeting was so brief and odd that I hesitate to comment on it. I thought the meeting as a whole was very productive. In retrospect, however, I would like to protest the manner in which the charter school issue was raised. It was very unprofessional and in violation of the norms any committee must maintain to function effectively.
Rather than putting the subject of charter schools on the agenda so we might discuss it in a collegial manner, one school committee member dragged it into a discussion of the vision statement of the recently formed Franklin County Regional group. Nothing in that statement (or in the discussions which led it ) implied that school committee members must take a particular position on Charter Schools. The whole issue appeared "out of the blue.”, to say the least.
During the “discussion,” if one could call it that, people on the School Committee who support a potential local charter school, the “Discovery School”, were implicitly condemned as if they were heretics who did not support public education. There was much innuendo about “conflict of interest.” Since the whole issue was off-topic, raised “on the fly” there was no real opportunity for those of us who support the Discovery School to defend ourselves or, heaven forbid, rationally explain our position.
The school committee obviously has some rather sharp divisions about charter schools. Some of us (myself included) have supported the recently proposed “Discovery School” and some us appear to oppose it. There is nothing wrong with this. Disagreement is not a bad thing. The charter school issue is controversial and complex. A real discussion might in fact reveal some common ground. Most of us probably support the kind of innovation charter schools represent but oppose the current funding mechanism.
To undermine rational conversation by suggesting that one side does not support public education is very divisive. To slide those accusations into another agenda topic so we cannot have a fair, coherent discussion is unprofessional and undermines the work of the committee. Unfortunately it appears we need yet another discussion of school committee norms.
Jeff Singleton
Since this protest letter was written School Committee member Joyce Phillips has requested that the charter school issue be placed on the agenda. I agree but the request also asks for "legal/ethical clarification regarding participation in the discussion by those SC members who are supporting the charter school."
This request is in keeping with the theory that school committee members have no right to support a charter school in their region but goes even further to suggest that we have no right to participate in a school committee discussion of ithe issue. WOW!!!
