Outing of “Billionaires for Excellent Schools”: Amos B. Hostetter of the Barr Foundation, Seth Klarman of the Klarman Family Foundation, Paul Sagan (Chairman of the State Board of Ed). Still wielding oversized influence over our schools.
Charter Schools
Public Charter Startup Grants
Lucky Boston: “The [Walton Foundation’s] strategy is to focus grants on a limited number of districts to make significant changes in those locations”… we’re among the 13 districts on the list.
http://www.waltonfamilyfoundation.org/grants/public-charter-startup-grants
Charter advocates seek alliance with former adversaries
For the big picture on Mass Ed Reform groups jumping into the fight for the Fair Share Amendment, which would raise $2 billion for public ed, READ THIS!
Public Support for Charter Schools Plummets, Poll Finds
“Trump Effect” and other factors affecting the 12 percent drop in support for charter schools this past year.
https://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2017/08/15/public-support-for-charter-schools-plummets-poll.html
2017-18 School Bell Times
Here’s a list of schools served by BPS transportation, including BPS, charter and parochial schools. Are the “50 or more bus routes to be cut” equitable across the BPS, charter, and parochial sectors? And which neighborhoods, racial groups and ELL/Special Ed populations will be most affected? Hard to say, as much of this is being planned behind closed doors.
Charter school leaders’ tasks are not comparable to work of superintendents
Letter To The Editor response by former superintendent to recent article about high salaries of charter school administrators: “Unlike a principal, the superintendent is tasked with planning, organizing, staffing, developing, observing, reporting, budgeting, auditing, and maintaining school plant adequacy, to name a few. He or she must operate within the policies of the school committee and be evaluated by the committee on a regular basis.All these responsibilities are carried out on behalf of up to thousands of pupils and their families in sometimes a dozen or more buildings.”
Some charter school leaders’ pay far outpaces their public rivals
Public records requests by by the Globe reveal the out-of-line salaries paid to many of the charter leaders in Boston, including $275,000 to the head of Conservatory Lab.
Charter school advocates refocus, but foes skeptical
The Herald covering Mass Parents United: “The Walton Family Foundation doesn’t represent the [parent] voice,” said Lisa Guisbond of Citizens for Public Schools, referring to MPU.
Cloaking Inequity: Charter Schools: Who Is Working Together to Improve Them?
The NEA just adopted a policy that lays out three criteria charter schools must meet to provide students with the support and learning environments they deserve: (1) charter schools should only be authorized by a local and democratically accountable authorizing entity; (2) there must be empirical assessment of how a new charter school will serve to improve the local public system before any charter enters a community; and (3) charter schools must comply with the same safeguards and standards that apply to neighborhood public schools such as “open meetings and public records laws, prohibitions against for-profit operations or profiteering, and the same civil rights, employment, labor, health and safety laws and staff qualification and certification requirements.”
Behind Mystic Valley’s vaunted test scores, a question of equity
More info about Mystic Valley Charter School. Interesting that the article cites a 2015 denial of expansion, but fails to mention that in 2016 conditions for expansion were removed by the state: ““I want to offer my congratulations on the progress and improvements the school has made,” Mass Education Commissioner Mitchell Chester said.