0 Confessions of a Public School Parent

The Boston Compact, Charter School legislation, possible school closures and the Mayor who left ALL Boston's children behind once he took the oath of office. School, citizen groups, weird City of Boston "partner" events, reaching out to others in places like Chicago, Philadelphia, New York - all places being decimated by education reform, reading articles and digging into data on DESE and other sites. This is what my spare time - time when I could relax or do something totally selfish with - essentially revolves around or something similar for the past 23 years. 

Confession: my youngest is now in high school and I feel like I have failed my children. I failed them by allowing those who won't even put their own children into a public school to determine how my children would be educated. I failed them by not pushing back more against their use as guinea pigs in the edu-experiments that have encompassed the past 20 years of public education in my beloved city. I have failed them by allowing them to be nothing more than data-points to those who swore their focus was the children of Boston and ensuring they would receive the best education. I failed them by not screaming louder or opting them out of the insane MCAS sooner. All of these things are how I also feel I have failed ALL of our Boston students. 

To my children: I'm sorry. I loved school, okay - not the early hours, but when I went to Boston Public Schools, despite what was written about how horrible our education was, I got an amazing education. An education that, contrary to the popular myth pushed by education reformers, actually taught me how to ask questions, research, think critically, write everything from a resume, correspondence, legal documents, this blog and read for knowledge as well as enjoyment. My education gave me the drive to continue as a scholar throughout my life. This is what I want for all of you - the children I gave birth to and those that may not even know me, for school to be a place where you love to learn, even if you don't like the hours. 

Grades are subjective and standardized tests are just standards others have decided on or the "norm", well, my kids are not and never will be the "norm" so their scores on these tests mean almost nothing to me. In my opinion, the true success of a school and district is not how many of the students can pass a single test measure, but how many of the students that they educated not only go on to have successful lives, but continue to spend their life learning and never stop. 

Despite my feeling of failure, or maybe because of it, I will continue to fight against those who see our students as nothing but a data-point or dollar sign. Right now, that includes elected officials like Mayor Marty Walsh, Governor Charlie Baker and many others who seem to be paying off campaign debts by selling off our students' (and the city's) futures. And they are backed by big money and corporations hiding behind the foundations and groups that are purportedly non-profit: Gates, Walton, Broad, Democrats for Education Reform, Families for Excellent Schools, Stand for Children. Gates has already funded the Boston Compact through the Boston Schools Fund and the Boston Compact folks are in talks with the Walton Family Foundation for more funding. All of these organizations have the objective of opening more charter schools as one of their primary missions. And yes, I have been tweeting about all of these concerns and questions to all of them.

There are many concerns surrounding the Boston Compact, not the least of which is the lack of transparency and lack of any of the true stakeholders being part of the group. If you want to learn a bit more you should really read Public School Mama's blog and the links in her posts!

Call me crazy - rightfully so, because who else but a crazy person would believe that one voice or a small group of voices can indeed make a difference? I'll own my craziness because despite everything, I also know I have succeeded in some ways because I see it throughout BPS and my children do have the desire to continue learning. I didn't do it alone, and every day I am thankful to the staff and educators, and yes, BPS district personnel, City Councilors and Mayor Menino, and most of all the awesome students, parents and groups that helped ensure that my children became lifelong learners. 

We still have a lot of work to do, but luckily I know there are many community members, parents, students, families, educators and groups who are also fighting to ensure that every student truly receives the best education we can give them and to light the spark necessary to continue their learning for the rest of their lives. I may also be a dreamer, but I truly believe we can accomplish our goals. So, to the many parents, students, families and community members feeling fatigue or, like myself, feeling like you may have failed your students, I thank you for fighting on despite the constant barrage of education reform initiatives and compacts designed to decimate public school districts. 

If you want to learn more about the current issues many are concerned about such as what the Boston Compact, Mayor Walsh and Governor Baker's education proposals could mean for Boston I hope you will join me tomorrow evening, Wednesday, December 2, 2015 at 6:30 p.m. at the District B-2 Police Station 2400 Washington St, Roxbury, MA 02119 (Dudley Square).

Have questions or just want to see what I am working on? Feel free to email me at karen.kastmcbride@gmail.com or follow me via Twitter: @BPSNightmare. 

0 How I Really Feel - Testimony Before Joint Ed Committee Regarding Charter Schools

My own testimony before the Massachusetts Legislature's Joint Education Committee at the hearing regarding lifting the cap on charter schools on October 13, 2015. I hope all of our legislators read this, and more importantly, read and watch Tabitha's testimony at the same hearing as she is a BPS student and students are the true consumers of our education system.

Dear Senator Chang-Diaz, Representative Peisch and Joint Education Committee Members:

My name is Karen Kast-McBride and I am a proud Boston Public School parent, advocate and Citizens for Public Schools Board member. I want all parents to have choices in where they educate their children, but is it true choice if the choice is only for a select few - students who will most likely succeed no matter which school they attend? Is it really school choice if it is only open to those who do well on tests, sit still, behave and do not have language or ability barriers? Is it true choice when children with language or special needs are punished for their inability to conform? It is not choice, it is segregation.

Both of my daughters go to Boston Public Schools which have seen budget cuts of $300-500,000.00 per year for the past ten years. Over six years the Irving Middle School received over $3,000,000.00 in cuts while the Irving populations of SWD (37%), ELL (17.2%) and High Needs (75.1%) increased – quite a few of whom were pushed out of charter schools. The Irving has the highest number of Emotionally Impaired SWD outside of a special education school - students who have been traumatized or have severe emotional and psychiatric needs, and has the highest number of students in foster care in Boston (possibly the state), which generates a slew of new issues to address. Despite all of these factors, the Irving has become the most highly chosen stand-alone middle school in Boston and increased students’ success rates on mandated testing, and more importantly, their overall success in school and life.

Unfortunately, our true public schools are bleeding - due to budget cuts which consistently increase as federal and state education funding dwindles and charter schools take larger portions of our BPS budget which is not fully reimbursed as many charter proponents claim. By the way, charter schools are allocated 3-4 times the amount my daughters' schools receive per-pupil. I would be happy to explain the difference in per-pupil dollars allocated to a BPS school vs. the amount allocated to charter schools for the same type of students, just ask me.

The decisions you make regarding education drastically impact the thousands of students I represent along with their public schools. Both of my daughters are students with special needs, both have IEPs, and both have IQs in the 98th percentile - so like many of our special needs students, the schools are challenged to address both their gifted and special needs. All of these students are amazingly smart and will go far, but need some help which their public schools give them. I have watched many of these students not just get through and pass an arbitrary test, but truly flourish and become lifelong learners with strong voices who are now becoming the leaders in their communities.

Are you willing to make a decision that could lead to these students being unable to progress and flourish as they already have because their schools can no longer sustain quality educational programs? Are you willing to allow charter schools to continue their practice of not accepting or pushing out students with disabilities or language needs? I would be happy to educate you on why any vote to lift the cap on charter schools may actually be in direct violation of the special education laws which guarantee students with disabilities access to the same quality educational opportunities as their non-disabled peers, just ask me.  

The conversation regarding lifting the charter cap is premature until we truly invest in our traditional public schools instead of draining funds out of them and into charter schools which: 

• practice selective enrollment as well as pushing out students who don't test well;
• claim 100% of their graduates go on to college without clarifying that of the many 9th graders who start at their schools few are left to graduate (a traditional public school would be closed due to those results), and most who do graduate are white, contrary to the marketing done which claims charter schools are successful for students of color; and,
• let’s not forget, there is no transparency regarding the money charter schools take in - whether public or private – as they refuse to open their books to auditors of all levels. 

The valiant steps your colleagues have taken since last year, such as review of the foundation budget, attrition, graduation and suspension rates in charter schools, and much more still need to be done prior to any legislation going forward on lifting the cap.

I am not asking you to eliminate the charter schools which already exist, I ask that we address the issues we are all aware of with this education model prior to even discussing allowing more to open. Last year, after meeting with concerned students, families and educators, many of your colleagues made a promise to concerned students, families and educators to review all of the issues prior to considering lifting the cap on charter schools again. I ask that that promise be kept and that you focus your energies on doing more to ensure the success of our traditional public schools which should be your first priority.

I ask that you vote NOT to pass the Governor’s proposal (HD 4191) and any other legislation which would lift the cap and H385, until all of the issues above are addressed. I also ask that you vote NOT to pass H444/S327.

I also ask that you vote to PASS Bills S326, H485, H490, S295, H380, S321 and H467.

Please stand up for students like my daughters, stand for the students whose parents can't even take a minute to call or email you, stand against the pro-charter school lobbyists, corporations and those who would use tax dollars to further their own wealth without any true concern for these children who cannot stand up for themselves. 

Respectfully,

Karen Kast-McBride

To get involved with the fight for our students and public education, please:

Call, email, write and visit your state Senator and Representative;
Join myself and others throughout Massachusetts by:
Contacting me via email or Twitter @bpsnightmare and if you use social media, be sure to check out and "Like" the Facebook page for "Keep The Cap on Charter Schools Massachusetts" and follow @KeepTheCapMass on Twitter.

0 Impact of Charter Schools on Public Schools - Testimony of a BPS Student

Shared with permission, below is the text of Tabitha Kast-McBride's testimony regarding the impact of charter schools on her education as a Boston Public School student. She gave this testimony to the members of the Joint Education Committee at the Massachusetts State House on Tuesday, October 13, 2015 - after waiting more than eight hours to testify. You can also view the video of Tabitha's testimony here.

Dear Senators and Representatives of the Joint Education Committee:

Hello! My name is Tabitha Kast-McBride. I am 17 years old and currently a student at Tech Boston Academy – a Boston Public School. I would like to speak about the impact charter schools have had on my education in a real public school as a student with special needs.

When you hear about learning disabilities or mental health, often, the symptoms go unrecognized, sometimes until it’s too late. Some people don’t find out their kid has a learning disability or a mental illness until years have passed. Public schools offer testing, guidance, and more for students like me. Most students with special needs have an Individual Education Plan (IEP) that gives them access to the help they need. Currently I go to a school that has a program that helps students who are emotionally fragile, many who have the same issues like I do with anxiety and depression. Our school has a small class for us, counselors, psychologists, specially trained staff and a special area we can go to get extra help or take a time out if needed. We are not dumb either, many of us have high intelligence and the ability to not only learn but excel, but our brains just don’t work like most peoples do.

I have many friends who have come from charter schools to BPS, and they tell me that they don’t bother to help students like me and definitely do not have these types of programs for students with special needs. The charter schools ignore the problems, which is NOT okay. Worse they often eliminate students IEPs or won’t write one, but then punish students for things that are due to their disabilities, which is not allowed in REAL public schools because of the rules they have to follow. Ignoring any type of disability whether a mental illness or a learning disability, will not make it better or go away. Because the charter schools ignore students’ problems, punish them for the things they can’t help then eventually tell them they can’t go there anymore, many of these students end up even worse. And no one punishes the charter schools for all the damage they do to these students which I think is really wrong.

More charter schools will mean more students that don’t have access to the help they need and more students taught to have a fixed mindset instead of a growth mindset. A fixed mindset is basically when you think your intelligence stays the same throughout your life. A growth mindset is when your intelligence grows. In charter schools they teach you what you need to pass the tests, if you don’t do well on the tests they tell you to go to a BPS school and they give you work upon work and don’t bother to help you if you are struggling. If you struggle you fall behind. When you fall behind you start to think negatively and might even give up completely.

I was really upset to hear that the Governor wants to pass a law to open more charter schools and I am really against it! I have always gotten a good education at my BPS schools, even though we keep having things like music, art, even my favorite class Applied Science, cut out because BPS can’t afford them due to charter schools taking so much of our money even though they don’t have to follow the laws my schools do. I am asking you to KEEP THE CAP on charter schools, help fix our REAL public schools and make it more fair- If my school needs to follow the laws and only gets a certain amount of money per student, the charters should have to follow the same laws AND only get the same amount my school would for their students.

Please vote to pass Bills S326, H485, H490, S295, H380, S321 and H467. 

Sincerely,

Tabitha Kast-McBride

To get involved with the fight for our students and public education, please:

Call, email, write and visit your state Senator and Representative;
Join myself and others throughout Massachusetts by:
Contacting me via email or Twitter @bpsnightmare and if you use social media, be sure to check out and "Like" the Facebook page for "Keep The Cap on Charter Schools Massachusetts" and follow @KeepTheCapMass on Twitter.

0 1st Quarter Massachusetts Education Recap 2015

Though quiet for awhile now, I have not been absent or ignorant of what has been happening in my beloved school district and the state. Unfortunately, having to search for and then get up to speed in a new job, and because it has been a hard year for my daughter and that, along with high school applications and auditions for my younger daughter, has led to my silence over the past few months. Whether you considered it a nice break (yes, I know some did), or missed my voice and insights - plus the knowledge gained over 22 years as a Boston Public School parent - I am here to say I am back to help keep folks informed and educated. We all need to be aware of what is going on, because if we aren't I daresay by the time my youngest graduates, Boston Public Schools will become the Boston Charter School District, standardized testing will be the only thing our students do in school and the Olympics will be on the way here.

Since I last posted a lot has happened, but the most important to me are as follows: our new Governor, Charlie Baker, took office, a new Education Secretary was appointed, James Peyser, who is a champion for charter schools - no conflict of interest there, right? and a new Superintendent for Boston Public Schools, Tommy Chang from LA, was selected. Each of these on their own is concerning to me, but put together with a Boston Mayor who has made it clear that the only campaign promises Mayor Walsh will keep are those to the Unions and big money donors, it is downright alarming. I'm still waiting to be called for that Charter School Accountability Task Force Mayor Walsh promised the Boston Student Advisory Council (BSAC) and Boston Educational Justice Alliance (BEJA) he would establish to happen. 

The trend toward further privatizing our public schools continues in our state legislature, where talk of charter schools and lifting the cap on them continues despite the clear voices of thousands of families across the state having already told elected officials that this conversation is premature until we fix the issues with our public education districts by investing more in them instead of draining funds out of them and into schools that: selectively enroll and push out many students who don't test well, schools which claim 100% of their graduates go on to college without clarifying that of the many 9th graders who start at their schools very few are left to graduate from their 12th grade classes (a traditional public school would be closed due to those results) - and most of the students who do are white, unlike the marketing done by charter schools claiming they are successful for students of color or from low-income families. And let's not forget, there is no transparency regarding the money charter schools take in - whether public or private - they tend to refuse to open their books to auditors of all levels. 

And of course, let's not forget the battle waging across our state and the nation: MCAS, Common Core and PARCC assessments being used to deem a student able to graduate and public schools failing by a "deeply broken system" (Mitchell Chester re: MCAS) and before most students have had more than a year or two of the Common Core curriculum taught in their schools. This testing battle has been heating up and gaining momentum not just across this rebellious state, but the entire nation, and it seems, much to ed reformers horror everywhere, that legislators from city to federal levels are starting to realize that families are fed up with their students being taught to take tests so are opting their students out of those tests and the legislators are now making moves to change the way tests are being used to assess students, educators and schools. 

Never fear my ed reform readers, for if the legislators fail you again here in Massachusetts, the education reform groups like Families for Excellent Schools, Stand for Children, Mass Charter Public School Association, Democrats for Education Reform (DFER) and the many others backed by the ed reform conglomerates like the Walton Foundation, Gates, Broad et al, are diligently working toward putting in place a Ballot question for 2016 (and funding the campaign work necessary to push it through of course) by selling you the same old lie: that our public education systems do not work and we must privatize our public schools. After all, if you don't buy what they are selling, how can they make the $500 Billion dollar profits they gain from their New Market Tax Credit (NMTC) they invest in in the name of helping our low-income, urban and students of color?

Isn't it interesting that despite the horrible conditions our public school students endure here in Massachusetts (you know, those rowdy demanding educated parents and students, teachers unions, groups like Citizens for Public Schools that fight to protect our public schools, schools built before WWII, allowing students from low-income families or with language and special needs to attend our schools), our public schools in Massachusetts still rank 1st in the nation on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) for the 5th year in a row? Huh, imagine what we could do with more funds invested in them?

Does this mean we are perfect? No, we still have a lot of equity, opportunity and achievement gaps to overcome, especially in an urban district like Boston. But when has defunding something we are trying to fix ever been the right solution? Great example of this is our latest winter and what happened with the MBTA - for years multiple experts and groups told the legislature and voters that we needed to maintain, upgrade and invest in our public transit system, yet no one wanted to spend their money on a system that is integral to the future of our state's economy because "I don't use the T", and so, many had no way to get to work and lost wages. 

Similarly, we hear the same type of argument from folks: "I don't have children" or "My children go to private schools, why should I pay more money for public schools I do not use?" The simple answer: funding public education, like our transit system, is integral to every single voter in Massachusetts as it impacts our future, economically, socially and as a true democratic state and nation. 

And, no, the Olympics coming to Boston is NOT the answer to either our transit or our education needs - in fact, it will drain even more from our citizens and their families, so I hope you haven't bought into that lie!

All in all, it has been a busy few months for Governor Baker and Mayor Walsh, and those who assisted them into office. And it seems no matter what the constituents want, both of them will insist on continuing to ignore the voters of Massachusetts in favor of the corporations, lobbyists and education reform operators who pull their strings. 

Unfortunately for them, I am happy to report that unlike just two short years ago, more families are becoming aware of the differences between our traditional public schools and "charter public schools," more educators and families are saying that standardized testing is not the answer to what ails our public education systems, and more citizens are standing up to voice their objections to the privatization of our public education system. And the voices of these educated citizens are being heard by the legislators at the city, state and federal level. It really might be time for Governor Baker's and Mayor Walsh's advisers to clue them both in that they may very well be assuring that they each only have one term in their respective offices. 

The best evidence for why we all need to pay attention to what is happening with our public schools comes from the ultimate consumers of education services: our students, so please be sure to read EduShyster's article "Students say the darndest things."

Have questions or just want to see what I am working on? Feel free to email me at karen.kastmcbride@gmail.com or follow me via Twitter: @BPSNightmare. 

2 Massachusetts Public Education: Are Students Really Winning?

Right now in Massachusetts the battle over public education, and the tax dollars (and tax credits!) associated with it, is coming to a head in the form of legislation, H4108: And Act Relative to Improving Student Achievement, at the state house which would raise the cap on charter schools. 

Terms like "school choice", "poor and under-privileged students", "failing schools" and more are thrown around to scare the general public into believing that our traditional public schools are failing our children and the only solution is to open more charter schools. Unfortunately, for some reason our local mainstream media outlets continue to perpetuate the misinformation campaigns through multiple articles which utilize data to prove their case, even after that same data and the reports they reference have been proven to utilize faulty data and analyses and show no significant difference in performance by charter school students over traditional public school students. 

If you are a parent, family member, friend, community member, student or concerned citizen here are some things you should be asking regarding the education that your favorite student(s) are receiving right now:

When there is no significant difference in the test scores for charter school students vs. public school students, then why are there so many corporations, political groups, politicians and individuals pushing for more charter schools instead of investing in our traditional public schools? Hint: the public education industry is approximated at $500Billion dollars.

Why are we allowing our tax dollars to become corporate profits for some of the richest companies in the world (who receive tax credits, breaks also) instead of investing them into our traditional public schools? Read: Sacrificing Our Children

When it has been proven that charter schools are not actually educating the students who have significant needs, those who live in poverty and/or with language and disability needs, how can we even compare the two drastically different populations and claim one is doing better than the other? Charter Schools and Students with Disabilities Report, Pgs 26-34

Why are we allowing one type of assessment system that utilizes high-stakes tests to determine our schools and students' success levels which feeds into education policies? For more info regarding high-stakes testing, check out Fairtest.

Why are we allowing politicians, corporations and billionaires with no education background to determine the best methods to educate our children without listening to the stakeholders' voices? Read: All Change is Not Growth

Why are so many sitting silently by and allowing our legislators, and those who finance their campaigns, to push agendas and make decisions that allow our children to be used as guinea pigs? Hint: Most of the educational policies being pushed as "education reform" have never been proven to increase educational outcomes for all students.

Why do we allow our politicians to make decisions that are better for corporations than for the constituents who voted for them, and why do we keep voting them back into office? See the interview with Diane Ravitch and then read her blog! 

Who really wins when we allow public education to become a profit tool and tax credit for the Walton Family Foundation (Walmart), which has specifically targeted Boston Public Schools as one of their "target districts" to start more charter schools, and others like it who won't even pay their own employees a living wage? It is not our students who win, and the winners laugh all the way to the bank.

Think corporations and those who run them care about your children or their education? Think again. Our students education has been co-opted and is now seen as another way for shareholders, companies and foundations to make a profit at the expense of our children's future, especially for those who live in poverty, with language or disability needs, and many of our children of color. 

"College and Career Readiness" is a term that sounds great, but is used primarily to push for more charter schools, high-stakes testing and - the new favorite: school autonomy by those who want families and politicians to buy what they are selling in order to acquire more public funding that will increase their profits. These savvy corporate players know that every parent dreams of their child's future which college and careers are a part of, so it is easy to take advantage of this by corporate education reform backers. 

But is that really all you want for the children you love? I bet you are saying "No, it isn't." As someone who loves that child, you want the world for them: maybe they will invent the newest "big thing," maybe they will become a teacher, lawyer, doctor, engineer, city planner, or do something in the public sector where they help our city and country become better - maybe even President. You most likely want your students to be able to make good decisions and choices, be happy, experience love, have a family of their own - whatever that may look like, be involved in their community and engaged as a citizen and live life successfully as a well rounded person. And yes, this includes being ready to access either higher education or careers once they finalize their K-12 experience, but how can students do that if most of what they are taught revolves around the importance of taking tests?  

Additionally, what are the odds that your child will actually attain the goal of "college readiness" by graduating high school at a charter school here in Massachusetts? Not as high as they would be at your good old traditional public schools because charter schools have higher attrition and suspension rates and lower graduation rates than our traditional public schools. Unfortunately, you won't read about or hear these facts through any of our major Boston news sources. 

Luckily, we have alternatives for news like Edushyster whose article "Charter Cap 'n Gown" highlights the issue of graduation rates in Boston charter schools. Facts to think about: here in Boston, Codman Academy Charter School had only 6 boys graduate out of the 19 students who graduated in 2013 (9th grade incoming class of 53 students); City On A Hill had only 4 boys graduate of the 31 students who graduated (9th grade incoming class of 130 students); and Match Charter School also had only 6 boys graduate out of the 23 students who graduated (9th grade incoming class of 72 students.) More data to come on this VERY soon!

Corporate education reform is brought to you by those who helped bring about our latest recession: the hedge fund managers, investment brokers, corporations and the big banks involved with them. What "readiness" seems to mean for the corporations is ensuring that they have someone ready in the future to work for them and increase their profits. While they are pouring money into education reform, political and media campaigns designed to make you believe their front-men are looking out for your children's best interest (Stand for Children is a good example of this), they refuse to pay their own employees a living wage, yet continue to reap the profits associated with loans, tax credits and helping to sell products needed for MCAS or PARCC, and by the way, very few of their own children are affected by any of it as they attend private schools. 

Education in the US has historically been about educating the citizenry and ensuring democracy along with giving every child the ability to live the "American Dream." Unfortunately, for those of us immersed in education policy, what we have seen, over the past 10 years especially, is that what backers of corporate education reform and bills like H4108 really want to ensure is their own bottom line by "educating" our children to conform, be complacent and make these foundations and shareholders richer.

All of the above was only further solidified a week ago, when despite my attempt to get away from the entire education debate by relaxing a bit, that hope was dashed while watching NECN Business on Sunday. Paul Guzzi, President of the Boston Chamber of Commerce, and Peter Howe, NECN Business Editor, insisted that the Massachusetts House of Representatives passage of H4091 which would allow the proliferation of charter schools to continue with no increase in true accountability and oversight is the best answer for students in "horrible situations" who attend "terrible school districts" - primarily meaning Boston. Both Mr. Guzzi and Mr. Howe urged the Senators, who now have the bill in their hands as H4108, to also vote to lift the cap on charter schools in Massachusetts. If you are like me, you are asking yourself: why are the business leaders of Boston pushing for more charter schools?  I bet you know the answer!

The education of our students is the biggest responsibility we as parents, family, community members, and citizens have, yet we are failing our students every day that we remain silent and allow their education to be co-opted by businesses, corporations, organizations and billionaires who only see the profit they can make using our children now and in the future. We are failing our students by continuing to allow politicians to make choices based on campaign dollars instead of the welfare and future of our students, families, cities, states and the nation. We cannot afford to fail our students any longer.

Students, parents, families, educators, city and school leaders, politicians and citizens across the state and the country are coming together to insist that all of our students receive the quality education they deserve by investing in all of our students and schools equitably and fairly. Many of us in Massachusetts are emailing, calling, meeting with and visiting our state legislators to ask that they vote NO on H4108 and work with us to ensure more equitable funding formulas for all of our public schools, better oversight of charter schools to address all areas of concern, and to stop the over-testing of our children. 

Each of us alone has power when we raise our voice, collectively we can be truly unstoppable and the time to raise your voice, as a parent, as a family member, as a student, community member, politician or educator to ensure the educational rights of all of our students is NOW. This is not something you can put off if you want to ensure that your children, and all of our students, do not pay the ultimate price while those pushing the corporate agenda of corporate education reform turn our tax dollars into private profits.

To get involved with the fight for our students and public education, please:

Call, email, write and visit your state Senator and Representative;
Join myself and others throughout Massachusetts by:
Contacting me via email or Twitter @bpsnightmare, Mary Lewis-Pierce via email or Twitter @Googiebaba, and/or Kristin Johnson via email or Twitter @KrissyCabbage!

Also, if you use social media, be sure to check out and "Like" the Facebook page for "Keep The Cap on Charter Schools Massachusetts" and follow @KeepTheCapMass on Twitter.

0 Open Letter to Massachusetts Representatives Regarding House Bill 4091 "An Act Relative to Improving Student Achievement"

House Bill 4091 will be voted on by the Massachusetts Representatives during their session beginning at 1:00 p.m. on Wednesday, May 21, 2014! Please email your Massachusetts Representative with the title Vote NO on H4091! 




Dear Representative:

Education reform, as developed over twenty years ago, initially had the right idea: ensure that every child, regardless of need, ability or socio-economic status was truly being educated. Many of us applauded that finally schools and districts would be held accountable for educating our special education and ELL students to ensure that they were not, as was the norm, just being pushed through the schools without actually being educated. Many also applauded the idea of creating a few schools where innovative ideas for educating all students could be piloted without the normal red-tape that often made it impossible for our educators, administrators and district personnel to try something new, especially since the idea was that then the "best practices" from these "innovation schools" would be shared and used in ALL of our schools to enhance our students' education and ensure that every student received a top-quality education. These are just two of the premises of the original education reform law here in Massachusetts. 

The first sign, for many of us, that something had gone terribly wrong with education reform came when MCAS was introduced and we were told that by 2014 if your 10th grade student failed to pass this test they would not receive a diploma but instead, a "Certificate of Attendance" even if they passed every other requirement for graduation. FYI - my own son was in one of the "pilot" 4th grade classes for MCAS, my middle child is in 10th grade this year and just finished taking the 2014 "no opt out" 10th grade MCAS. 

With the creation of MCAS, the public was told that this one test would determine whether a school was succeeding or failing, which seemed irresponsible to me - how can one measure adequately assess anything or anyone? As a parent and advocate I am well aware that it takes multiple measures and tools to assess whether a person has special needs or is gifted - and the usual process is to schedule the student for 2-3 sessions of testing or observation in order to ensure that the "snapshot" of that student is as accurate as possible in determining need and not just the result of a bad or good day - so how can we possibly assess something as complex as a school, made up of multiple types of students, as succeeding or failing based on one measure?

Quickly, other signs that our education reform laws and regulations had taken a twisting turn toward something never envisioned followed, more each year, and each time, much more worrisome to many of us: 

• We have watched as our schools have become test factories, our educators and students becoming so stressed about how their performance would be evaluated based on a single assessment system, that some of our best educators often leave public schools after only a few years, taking with them the experience that we need our staff to have in order to educate every student; and how our students (and their families) have become so stressed out about testing that we are now dealing with epidemic levels of depression, anxiety, self-injurious behaviors and more in our student populations;
• We have watched as many families who are able to move out of Boston, Worcester, Lowell, Lawrence, et al to the suburbs because of the lack of support for our urban public schools, often deemed "failing" due to one test score, by our elected officials;
• We have also watched as the "innovation" schools, aka charter schools, which in the beginning took sweat, tears and hard-work to raise any funding necessary in order to open one, have become yet another way for billionaires and their foundations to utilize tax breaks and reap more profits using our students and schools to suck tax dollars away from the neediest communities - despite the high suspension, attrition and low graduation rates at these "innovation" schools;
• We have watched as more and more of our federal and state education funding is tied to initiatives that are untested and unproven which force schools and districts to jump through hoops for short-term funding with no long-term plans for continuation beyond the 3-5 year grant period (even if the practices did work) while foundations like the Waltons, Gates', Broad and others reap the benefit of a 39% tax credit (New Market Tax Credit which can double their investment!) at the expense of taxpayers as well as students across the country. Often, these same initiatives (MCAS vs. PARCC; state frameworks vs. Common Core) are eventually deemed to not be the answer to education issues as promised, yet our elected officials continue to vote the newest idea into law without full understanding of exactly what they are voting on or regard for the possible ramifications they will have.

Today many of you are trying to determine whether to vote to pass H4091 "An Act Relative to Improving Student Achievement" during Wednesday's scheduled vote on same. The purpose of H4091, despite the nicely worded title, is primarily to lift the cap on the amount of charter schools allowed to exist in Massachusetts and open the door to allow those behind corporate education reform to increase their own profits. 

One of the main concerns many have with H4091 is that it still does not address any of the equity issues which have been brought to the attention of all of our Representatives and Senators. Despite assertions that the previous bill's proposals, as H425 (recommended ought NOT to pass by Joint Education Committee in March 2014) and later as H3984, would address the reimbursement and some of the equity issues, neither went far enough in addressing the concerns, inequities and segregation issues brought to your attention previously. 

In essence, H4091 is the failed H425 bill, but not only does this new iteration of the bill not address the issues which the compromise proposed by Rep. Holmes and Sen. Chang-Diaz attempted minimally to do, but in fact, H4091 has the potential to do much more to harm all of our students as an end result of it being approved.

Other areas of concern include, but are not limited to:

• Further decimation of a district's budget by allowing payments to charter schools to exceed 18% of the district budget;
• Allowing school boards/committees to include people who also sit on the board of a charter school (including founders and CEOs) - this is a clear conflict of interest by any definition of the term;
• Instead of protecting our students and public schools and allowing some form of autonomy to our individual districts and schools, H4091 seems to be written to limit the oversight of a school committee or board (most of which are elected members by the residents of that city aka your constituents) in several areas, not the least of which occur when a school is under review as possibly under-performing and in the school committee's oversight of spending on behalf of a school designated as under-performing and turned over to a "receiver;" 
• In essence this bill will increase the power of the Commissioner of Education without ensuring that stakeholders have a voice in what happens with a school or their district; and,
• Requires that districts "shall prior to consideration of any other disposition of the identified excess capacity, make a good faith offer to sell or lease in whole or in part at fair market value the identified excess capacity to a commonwealth charter school" which has several ramifications for all of our Massachusetts school districts. With this language in place districts' could be forced to sell or lease to a charter school company despite the possibility of better offers elsewhere. Across the country such leases have already caused countless issues for many school districts as often the bulk of the cost for maintenance and upkeep in lease agreements with charter schools are still the responsibility of the school district the charter school is leasing space from which is why Elgin City Council tabled entering into such an agreement in April, 2014.  

As H4091 was only released Monday night, many of us are still in the process of fully reviewing all of the possible ramifications of this proposal. Despite the short time for review, it is absolutely clear that "An Act Relative to Improving Student Achievement," H4091, is more likely to have the opposite effect by further widening the gaps we see in achievement and opportunity while also re-segregating our students not only by race, but also ability levels, language and special needs with what appears to be less oversight and more public funding paying to privatize our public education systems.

I strongly urge you to vote NO on H4091 and look forward to working with you to ensure that all of our students receive the high-quality education they deserve without further eviscerating our traditional public schools.

Karen Kast-McBride

To my readers: Please check out the Press Release from QUEST members regarding H4091 and please help us defeat this procedural end-run by calling and emailing your Representatives today. 

I will be live-tweeting from the State House with the hashtag #KeepTheCap if you would like to follow what is going on!

Have questions or just want to see what I am working on? Feel free to email me at karen.kastmcbride@gmail.com or follow me via Twitter: @BPSNightmare. 

0 The Facts About Charter Schools That No One Tells You

There is a lot of talk about charter schools and raising the cap to allow more of them to open in Massachusetts. Boston is ground zero for the charter school "education reform" conglomerates, individuals and organizations, like the newly formed "Boston Forward" group, which are greedily counting the millions of dollars to be made off of our students if this is allowed to happen. This situation has led to a lot of questionable push-poll results being passed off by our larger media news sources as charter school "facts" which are further confusing the argument for the public even after those "facts" have been proven incorrect or unsubstantiated. 

Add in a Mayoral race filled with many candidates, most of whom are willing to sell out our students for campaign funds by spouting the "raise the cap" chant (only three are against raising the charter school cap), and you may understand one of the reasons why education has become a major focus of the elections in Boston. If you think the Mayoral and City Council races aren't a big deal right now, you may really want to start paying attention, because they are!   

Other than knowing that charter schools are an "alternative" to "regular public schools" most people do not fully understand: how they are funded, the student populations served, their actual graduation rates and the differences between them except for their separate "lottery" admissions procedures. This became more obvious to me through a number of conversations in several venues so my inner-educator-activist kicked in to write this article that I hope will help families and the broader community understand why so many people, education advocates and organizations that care about educating all of our students are saying "don't lift the cap" on something that, in theory, sounds good.

Funding:
Many people think charter schools are privately funded, which is false. The money that pays for students to attend a charter school comes out of the sending district's budget. Here in Boston, for each student that attends a charter school instead of one of the BPS schools, the charter school receives $15,527.00+ per pupil from the BPS budget, which is $4,000.00 more than the base per pupil funds allocated for BPS' own students. 

Then there is the transportation of charter school students per Massachusetts state laws which dictate that charter school students can be transported city-wide on BPS buses or vehicles paid for out of the BPS budget. Meanwhile "regular" BPS students are restricted to transportation only within their zone in elementary and middle school. In high school our BPS students are given MBTA passes and expected to get to and from school on their own. Exceptions to the zone-based and T-pass transportation for BPS students is generally for students with special needs when their IEP indicates the need. There will clearly always be busing in Boston even with a new "Home Based" assignment model as we must transport students with disabilities (SWD), charter school and private school students. The larger cost to BPS will be for transporting our own students with special needs according to my discussions with John McDonough, then CFO of BPS who is now our Interim Superintendent, but there is clearly an amount of funding which will be in our budget to pay for transporting charter school and private school students across the city. The only way to change this practice regarding charter and private school transportation is to lobby our state legislators to change it via the law.

Additionally, there are other funds which a sending school district may end up allocating to charter schools (at least the *"in-district" ones) such as: additional equivalent per-pupil cost of a service if the charter school chooses not to purchase a discretionary central support service from the sending district. A sending district may also end up agreeing to provide non-discretionary services as BPS often does (including but not limited to: transportation, employee benefits, facilities, payroll, safety, food service, and other central office services) as *"in-kind" support for the charter school. *Though "in-kind" means that no money is given directly to the charter school, instead the sending district provides personnel/services/benefits, the costs for those in-kind services are paid for out of the budget of the sending district. This also means that certain district personnel or services are at least partially, if not totally, unavailable to do their job for the district itself.

In addition to all that I outline above, in the recent agreement with Unlocking Potential (aka UP a self-described "school turnaround organization" which is taking over the Marshall) that the Boston School Committee members voted to approve on November 7, 2012, BPS will provide the following:

• BPS agrees to identify which centrally-funded supports would typically be provided by the Office of Special Education and Student Supports (OSESS) to a BPS school with UP’s projected enrollment, including but not limited to any allocation of staff and service providers. The full value of these supports will be added as non-restricted funds to UP’s budget annually. Non-restricted funds mean that UP may use those funds for anything, not necessarily special education services. 


• UP shall establish and maintain a separate bank account under its exclusive control which BPS agrees to transfer any funds not allocated or budgeted for salaries or stipends into at least two times a year. The transfer will be based upon the difference between the total Lump Sum Budget provided by BPS to UP Academy and an estimate of the amount of funds UP Academy anticipates spending on stipends and salaries.


• UP has the sole discretion to select the staff for any and all positions at the school. UP may select staff without regard to seniority within the particular union or past practices between the Boston School Committee and any bargaining unit. 


• UP, through its board of trustees, shall manage its staff independent of the school committee. Except as outlined in the Application and Charter, UP is exempt from the provisions set forth in the applicable collective bargaining agreements.  Staff shall execute an election to work agreement containing the working conditions every year. UP may develop its own staff evaluation guidelines and evaluation instrument(s) in accordance with all current laws and regulations. 


• UP may involuntarily excess members of the BTU, Guild, and BASAS bargaining units as well as any other staff members and the provisions in any relevant collective bargaining agreements regarding excessing, seniority and transfer shall not apply to UP except that members of the collective bargaining units shall continue to accrue seniority.


• UP shall be operated and managed by its Board independent of the Boston School Committee. As written in the agreement: "The parties expressly acknowledge that UP is an entity independent of the Boston Public School Department and that Boston Public School Department shall not be liable for the acts or omissions of UP, the Board, its officers, agents or employees except to the extent consistent with the law, including the provisions of M.G.L. c. 71, §89 and regulations promulgated in connection therewith."

In addition to all of the above, charter schools also get millions in venture philanthropy dollars each year. So, as you can see, charter school funding has a huge impact on our BPS budget that goes well beyond just the base per-pupil and transportation funds.

Also, through the above information, you can clearly see that though many people believe that "In-district charter schools" are controlled and overseen by the public school district in which they are operating, this is false. According to the agreement with UP, even if the BPS Superintendent or School Committee believes that UP is not serving the best interest of BPS students, they must go through a complaint procedure first with the Board of Trustees of UP, and if dissatisfied with the Trustees' findings, then initiate a complaint to the Massachusetts Commissioner of Education. It does not sound like BPS has any more control over the "in-district" charter schools than they do over the Commonwealth charter schools to me!

Admissions:
Charter schools state that they have a "lottery" system regarding admissions. When applying to schools for my oldest daughter we did apply to a couple of charter schools because they had sent us literature. During my discussions with the admissions personnel I revealed that my daughter had special needs and would be going through the normal evaluation process. Why did I do that? I wanted to be sure they could handle her needs as I was fairly certain she would need some minimal special education services and supports. I was then politely but firmly "discouraged" from completing the application process by the admissions personnel. Though my inner advocate wanted to respond a totally different way, in the end I chose to refrain from submitting the applications, which those who know me may find shocking. For me it came down to this: if they don't want my daughter because she might have special education needs, then they don't deserve to have her as their student at all. (FYI - she tests as post-graduate grade level in everything except math which is her disability area and her IQ is 148 - only 2% of world population has an IQ of above 140).

I soon found out from several other parents that the experience I had was not an anomaly as they had similar experiences. As I had also started asking questions about the lottery process, I learned that the "lottery" consists of charter school personnel reviewing student data and records to select those students who, though they may not have high MCAS scores, are children with high-average to superior intelligence according to other measurements including IQ scores when available. Those students then emerge as the "winners" of the "lottery" and are invited to attend the charter school. Additionally, through record reviews personnel are able to determine which children with special needs have high or *low-incidence disabilities or language needs which also determines which of our ELL and special needs students "win" the "lottery".

In the world of special education, "High-incidence" are the most common special needs which are primarily able to be addressed in a general education classroom with possibly a second staff member assisting the student in the classroom or some pull-out services; "low-incidence" are the more significant disabilities with more educationally intensive and costly needs and can mean they need more pull-out services, substantially separate classes, though if done right a true full-inclusion program can educate both types of students together.  

Which leads to the next difference between charter schools and our "regular" public schools: populations.

School Populations: 
It has become clear through several sources, such as the 2012 Charter Schools and Students with Disabilities Preliminary Analysis of the Legal Issues and Areas of Concern prepared by The Center for Law and Education (CLE) with the Council of Parent Advocates and Attorneys (COPAA), our own BPS district numbers and Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (MADESE), that despite claims to the contrary charter schools are not educating the same population of students as the Boston Public School District does. 

As noted above, charter schools are able to select which students they will educate and multiple sources of information including utilizing the raw data from school profiles on the MADESE site without any interpretation, have and continue to prove that the charter schools claims of serving the same students as BPS does is false. Utilizing the raw data from the MADESE site which has profiles of every "public" school in the state, my friend and I put together a snapshot of the top 5 (who has highest #s) and bottom 5 (who has lowest #s) for each type of school in Boston (BPS, In-District Charter, and Commonwealth Charter schools) based strictly on MADESE data not "selective choice" as some may suggest. There is no interpretation of this data at all, we are just showing the actual numbers themselves for comparison. There is more to come very soon and every school WILL be included!

Our major news media outlets are constantly hyping that charter schools are much better at educating students than the "regular BPS schools", but now you can clearly see that the information they have been stating as "fact" are actually "spin". Hopefully, if you hung in this far, by now you can clearly see for yourself that the pro-charter groups and reporters are spreading misinformation, as there are drastic differences between the types of students who are being served in charter schools versus regular BPS schools which makes a huge difference in comparing who does a better job.

Here are a few other little known facts about charter schools which should be extremely concerning to us all: 

• Charter schools have a worse graduation/retention rate than our BPS schools do! As it has already been laid out quite well in an article by another blogger in March, until the school by school comparison my friend and I are preparing is finalized, I will direct you to that article: Charter School Attrition.


• Charter schools have a higher rate of suspension that our BPS schools do, see the article here: Raise the Cap on Traditional Public Schools.


• Charter schools' "teach to the MCAS" method of educating students does not set the students up well for SATs as proven through MADESE data again: Charter School Achievement Gap. 

Recently, Boston students organized a press conference and rally at the state house which I will write a bit more about in another article, but if you would like to see a brief synopsis of the press conference and rally despite the lack of credit given to those awesome students, please check out this article. This was a student initiated movement, contrary to the title and focus on what the adults had to say. The students of the Youth On Board, Boston Student Advisory Council, and other groups give me great hope for the future, and should not be ignored as they are the true experts on all of this right now because their education depends on them.

I will be writing much more on this topic as the battle, and yes, it is a battle, to save our public schools is heating up. In the meantime, if you would like to read more about the truth behind education "reform", check out some of my favorite bloggers:

Edushyster: Keeping an eye on the corporate education agenda, in Massachusetts and beyond. "Ed" combines facts and wit throughout the articles.

Mommy On the Floor: has just started writing about charter school issues, but has many great articles beyond charter schools!

I would love to connect with those of you who are as concerned as I and others are about the charter school cap being raised, so please contact me via email bpsnightmare@gmail.com or Twitter @bpsnightmare.