MTA responds to charter school op-ed

Printed in The Boston Globe, January 24, 2008

Joe William's Jan. 21 op-ed "Take the brakes off the charter movement" skews the facts and dismisses legitimate concerns about lifting the cap on the amount of district money that can be diverted to charter schools.

Williams asserts that charter schools are successful because "many" urban charters achieve better test scores than regular public schools. Whenever someone relies on anecdotes or generalizations to make a case, beware.

National studies have found that, on average, charter school students perform no better than public school students from similar backgrounds.

Our biggest concern is that the state's charter school funding system drains millions of dollars from the regular public schools. Associations representing teachers, superintendents, and school committees are calling for changing the formula so that it imposes less of a financial burden on schools that are already imposing new fees on parents and cutting art, music, physical education, and other essential services because of tight budgets.

Williams dismisses these concerns as coming from special interests. The primary interests at stake are the nearly 1 million students who attend the regular public schools in Massachusetts. To us, they are indeed special.

Anne Wass
President
Massachusetts Teachers Association
Boston