Council In the News Index

If Bill Passes, Charter Proponents Will Drop Ballot Push (State House News)

STATE CAPITOL BRIEFS (LUNCH EDITION)
THURSDAY, JAN. 14, 2010  STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE
 
IF BILL PASSES, CHARTER PROPONENTS WILL DROP BALLOT PUSH  Proponents of a ballot question calling for the lifting of all caps on charter schools say they will drop their effort if an education bill filed early this morning becomes law.  If signed and implemented, the bill will create enough new charter school capacity in underperforming school districts, largely in urban centers like Boston, Lawrence, Worcester and Springfield, to accommodate all of the estimated 20,000 students presently on waiting lists for charter school seats, according to Chris Anderson, former chair of the state Board of Education and a ballot question proponent.  "There's no need to proceed with the ballot initiative," Anderson, president of the Massachusetts High Technology Council, told the News Service Thursday morning.  "This will deliver results sooner than waiting for the people to vote in November." The ballot question was also pushed by former Board of Education Chair James Peyser, Paul Sagan, CEO of Akamai Technologies and other members of the Committee for Public Charter Schools. Anderson said the ballot question was "an essential part of the overall negotiations" over boosting opportunities for students in underperforming schools, noting the campaign was launched before Gov. Deval Patrick filed education legislation last summer.  He said a campaign on charter school expansion would be "lengthy and expensive" and called the ballot plan an "insurance policy that we hoped we would not have to cash in on."  Peyser, in an email to legislative leaders obtained by the News Service, thanked lawmakers for shepherding this targeted cap lift through the Legislature and said the campaign would formally end its ballot push once implementing regulations are put into place. Peyser, who works at the NewSchools Venture Fund, said the legislation doubles the maximum number of charter seats in the lowest performing school districts ?without undermining the funding formula or imposing onerous new burdens on existing charter schools.