Opinion

Opinion: State ed board must restore credibility, leave 'agendas' at the door


Published: November 6, 2009

Nine months after voting to approve a Gloucester charter school, four months after supposedly revisiting the issue and evaluating their own flawed process, and now seven weeks after the Times blew the lid off the board's governor's office rep saying he needed approval of a Gloucester charter solely to avoid blowing Deval Patrick's charter school "agenda" — the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education returns to town tomorrow for yet another hearing regarding the Community Arts School that is already chartered for opening next year.

And while the board's published agenda notes that both charter backers and opponents will have equal time — 30 minutes each — to discuss the matter, one can only speculate what its real "agenda" will be. For this hearing already reeks of a move to make the most politically expedient move, without truly considering the educational issues at hand for Gloucester's children and their parents.

As noted in today's Page 1 story. anti-charter demonstrators are preparing to rally a half-hour prior to the 1 p.m. meeting, and members of the charter board and their supporters are no doubt gearing up to perhaps answer BESE members' questions. But above all, let's hope all sides — the charter backers, city officials and other charter foes, and the board itself — keep in mind the differences between the hopelessly botched approval process and the application for the charter school itself.

There is no question that the board indeed still needs to take substantive action in the wake of Education Secretary Paul Reville's embarrassing e-mail touting the need to approve the Gloucester charter to, among other reasons, not dare alienate education backers such as The Boston Globe and The Boston Foundation. But BESE members should not even consider throwing the baby with the bathwater. The truth is, the pathetic politicizing of this issue has nothing to do with the merits of the application itself.

There are some important steps that this board must take to restore credibility to this process. Those include:

Demanding the resignation of Reville as a member. Simply put, his e-mail to Education Commissioner Mitchell Chester, as obtained and first reported by the Times in September, showed clearly he has no credibility or interest in serving school districts and students throughout the state; his only interest is in pushing the governor's "agenda," and seemingly at any cost. Any education board allowing him as a member risks losing the remaining shreds of its credibility as well.

Posing pointed accountability questions to Chester as to just what — aside from Reville's notorious e-mail, of course — went into his charter recommendation, given that he went against the urgings of his own staff's study and came a few days after the Reville "agenda" push. Chester reports to this board; its members should demand answers.

Mapping out a truly viable funding mechanism so that, with the help of newly-promised federal aid, charter schools such as the one approved for Gloucester can be a workable alternative without straining a city's or town's district funds — the primary complaint of virtually every local city and school official and many of the anti-charter parents.

Discussing an important reform that can exempt students attending charter schools from being counted as having left their school district — an issue that hurts Gloucester in seeking School Building Authority reimbursement and other funding affected by "declining enrollment." Yes, the approved Gloucester charter school will be independent from the district and its school leadership, but it is, after all, a public school that is open to all Gloucester students, with admission based on a lottery system.

There are indeed a number of steps the BESE can and should take as it conducts its hearing tomorrow. But revoking the new charter before the new school even opens, as opponents are now demanding — or even considering that option, at this point, should not be one of them.

Finding ways to make this type and other types of alternative education programs workable for the students and parents of Gloucester and other communities should be at the top of this board's agenda, tomorrow and every day from here on in.

And all other political "agendas" should be left at the door.