Citing Funding Concerns, Mayor Opposes New Charter School (MA)

December 10, 2010

A plan to create a new charter school in New Bedford received a strong show of support at a public hearing Wednesday afternoon as many people argued that the school would offer a much-needed educational option for parents and students.

Mayor Scott W. Lang, however, said he could not support opening another charter school in the city until the state adjusts the fundi ng mechanism for those schools to ensure an equitable distribution of funds for all New Bedford students.

"The parents of this city need and want the choice of what kind of educational opportunities are there for their (children)," said Rose Sparrow, a city resident and mother of four.

The Alma del Mar Charter School Founding Group has proposed a 360-student, kindergarten-through-Grade 8 school that will create service-oriented leaders who are on a path to college, according to the group’s application.

Sparrow was one of about 16 people who spoke in support of the school.

Lang said that the city’s public school system pays about $4.2 million a year to support the Global Learning Charter School. That funding allows the charter school to spend about $10,884 per student each year while the New Bedford School District can only spend $8,350 per student, Lang argued.

"Mayors from across Massachusetts have asked for a state funding formula that will allow charter schools to flourish without their success coming on the backs of our public school students," the mayor wrote in a letter to the state’s education commissioner.

"Until then, we should not create another charter school in New Bedford."

Marc Kenen, executive director of the Massachusetts Charter Public School Association, disputed the mayor’s claims, arguing that the state provides transition funding to school districts for every student who leaves a traditional public school to enroll at a charter public school.

"That first year is actually quite a bonanza for the district," he said.
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According to a spokeswoman for the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, school districts are reimbursed for students who attend charter public schools instead of traditional public schools. That reimbursement rate is 100 percent in the first year, then drops to 25 percent for years two through six, then to 0 percent in the seventh year, according to an education department spokeswoman.

In an interview Thursday morning, Lang said the district is not reimbursed for the students who attend Global Learning Charter School.

At Wednesday’s hearing, Jean Fox, youth council director at the Greater New Bedford Workforce Investment Board, agreed that the existing funding structure was problematic.

"But the charter schools broaden the scope of choice," she said. "And that broadened scope is something we desperately need."

The state education department is accepting written comments on charter school applications until Jan. 3. Those comments can be e-mailed to charterschools@doe.mass.edu or mailed to Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, Charter School Office, 75 Pleasant St., Malden, MA 02148.