Later today, the House and Senate are poised to take a vote on a plan to reform education in under-performing school districts across our state, and to position Massachusetts to access federal “Race to the Top” funding by expanding charter schools.
Sadly, it’s difficult to say whether or not passage of this bill today is good news.
Even though state officials have known for months that reforming our education laws would be necessary in order to tap into Race to the Top funds, they have waited until the very last minute to pass those reforms into law. In fact, applications for states to access Race to the Top funds are due next Tuesday.
To make matters worse, the final bill has been worked out behind closed doors by a legislative conference committee. Its final decisions were not made until late last night under the cover of darkness.
This means that a two-thirds vote of both branches is needed to even discuss the bill today, much less to pass it into law. Most legislators won’t have had enough time to read the bill completely and to accurately decide whether to vote for it or not based on its details. These details matter a lot, and I believe the importance of the issue at stake merits more than today’s last-minute rush job.
One of the most important parts of this bill for me is what it means to traditional public school districts. An early look at the final product indicates that the bill extends the reimbursement schedule from three years to six years, and it increases the total reimbursement amount from 200 to 225 percent. To me, this means that the bill overall might improve opportunities for students in under-performing school, but it does little to address financial concerns of school districts that are working hard and performing well. Over time, the issue of fair reimbursement to districts that send students to charter schools may become more pronounced as more charter schools are established, and we will have to wait and see how this turns out.
Unfortunately, because it’s a conference committee report that’s up for debate, there is no opportunity under legislative rules to amend its provisions to make it better today, even if legislators find problems with it.
I’ll keep you posted on the process in the House today. Until then, what do you think about this bill? Please post a comment below to let me know your thoughts.
