STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE
SENATE PRESIDENT STANLEY ROSENBERG, who still expects to determine by the end of the month whether a majority in his branch could support an expansion of charter schools in Massachusetts this year, described the prospects of pushing a bill through the Legislature as an “uphill climb.”
“This is not rocket science but it is also a complicated, politically and substantively, a complicated initiative to try to sort out,” Rosenberg told reporters on Monday afternoon. He later added: “In order to move forward, we would have to be able to thread a needle.”
Many senators have expressed concerns about the funding of charter schools and raised questions about whether they negatively impact the finances of traditional public schools. Rosenberg said his Amherst-based district in western Massachusetts “does not want to see any more charter schools.”
With the House waiting to see if the Senate can act on charter schools this session, Rosenberg has held a series of bipartisan caucuses to discuss the issue and even invited a facilitator to one meeting so that he could participate in the debate and not have to mediate.
Rosenberg, after meeting with Gov. Charlie Baker and House Speaker Robert DeLeo on Monday, said he has five to seven more Democrats he needs to speak with and indicated that Minority Leader Sen. Bruce Tarr is talking with Republican Senate members.
“Then we’ll spend the next couple of weeks after that processing all the information and by the end of January I want to be able to indicate whether I think we have the bandwidth to try to actually move forward and create a bill,” Rosenberg said.
In 2014, charter expansion legislation that cleared the House failed to gain traction in the Senate with only nine members supporting the House bill and only 13 backing a Senate revision. Rosenberg said in his conversations with senators about what would need to be included in a bill to gain their support “members are all over the map” and there are “a lot of concerns.”
If Rosenberg determines that a majority does not exist to warrant pursuing charter school legislation this year, the issue could be left to the voters with proponents pursing a November ballot question that allow for an expansion of charter schools. Baker has filed his own bill, but also supports the ballot question and has labelled charter-school access one of his top priorities for the new year.
“It’s going to be a very tough task to find a majority,” Rosenberg said.
Why did Commonwealth even run this State House News Service article on charter schools? It says absolutely nothing of substance on charter schools just “Many senators have expressed concerns about the funding of charter schools and raised questions about whether they negatively impact the finances of traditional public schools.” The rest of the article is all about “uphill climb,”thread a needle,” backroom nonpublic meetings. The public deserves clear and specific explanations on the finances and all the other issues on both sides of the charter school debate not these throwaway articles that shed no light whatsoever on whether or not charter schools should be allowed to expand in Massachusetts. By the way, if Commonwealth is relying on the State House News Service for in depth coverage of charter schools then that’s a real let down because stimulating nonpartisan debate and shaping public policy should start with accurate information on the issue so there’s an informed public discussion and the State House News Service seems to have no capacity or willingness to provide that information.
Now I know why CommonWealth is not covering the charter school issue in a way that its readers can make an informed decision on whether or not the cap should be lifted or whether charter schools should even exist in this state. Two of the biggest boosters of charter schools in Massachusetts are sponsors of MassINC which makes CommonWealth possible: The Massachusetts Charter Public School Association and The Boston Foundation…the land of the $500k+ CEO. SHAME ON COMMONWEALTH FOR NOT DISCLOSING THAT EVERY TIME A CHARTER SCHOOLS ARTICLE APPEARS ON THIS WEBSITE! SHAME….SHAME….SHAME!!!!