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Join Officials from across Massachusetts Concerned about Devastating Impacts of Question 2

Combating the claims that Question 2 will not impact them, leaders from Somerville have announced their opposition to Question 2, the ballot question that will allow unlimited charter school expansion anywhere in the state, taking millions of dollars away from successful local district public schools in  urban, suburban, and rural communities across Massachusetts.

“Like many people who are opposed to Question 2, I’m not anti-charter,” said Somerville Mayor Joe Curtatone. “I’m encouraging people to vote no on 2 because of the destructive impact it would have on neighborhood schools and local budgets.”

Charter schools are privately run schools that operate with taxpayer funding and educate only four percent of Massachusetts students. Every time a new charter school opens, it takes money away from the public schools in that school district. According to state data, charter schools will siphon off $451,338,729 from 231 local school districts this year alone, even after state reimbursements with Somerville projected to lose $7,115,776.¹

Question 2 will allow the state to approve 12 new charter schools each year in any community with no limits on the number of charter schools that can be created in the state or how much money a single district could lose, which could be used to invest in the public schools that 96 percent of families choose. With these financial loses, districts face cuts to arts and enrichment programs, are forced to increase class sizes, and are left with less money to educate higher need populations since charter schools typically fail to educate as many high-need students as local public school districts.

Communities throughout the state that don’t have a charter school are still losing money when students leave to go to a charter in a neighboring city or town. For example, Medford does not have a charter school but, this year, its district schools are losing $4,256,553 to area charter schools. This is the case for cities, suburbs, and rural communities across Massachusetts.

“Massachusetts is the birthplace of free quality public education and we need to work together to lift up all schools in the state to ensure our public schools have the resources and ability to meet the needs of all students in all communities,” said Juan Cofield, president of the New England Area Conference of the NAACP and chair of the Campaign to Save Our Public Schools.

Local officials opposed to Question 2 include:

A bipartisan statewide commission recently reported that public schools in Massachusetts are already underfunded by more than $1 billion, even before Question 2.² If passed, Question 2 would nearly triple the number of charter schools in just 10 years and take away an additional $1 billion each year from our local public schools. After 20 years, local public school districts would be losing nearly $4 billion a year to charter schools.³

Local communities and their school committees, which are forced to deal with the grave financial impacts charters have on their budgets, have no say in the approval or operation of charter schools. The state approves charter schools even when the communities where they will be located are opposed to them. This has happened in the cities of Brockton and Gloucester, and many other communities. That’s why more than 200 school committees across the state have voted to oppose Question 2, including the Somerville School Committee.4

“Local residents and their elected representatives should have the final say on what kinds of schools are serving their communities,” said Mary Ann Stewart, the parent representative on the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, the government entity charged with approving charter schools.

These officials join the dozens of parent, education, civil rights, community and labor organizations also opposing Question 2, including the Massachusetts PTA, the Massachusetts Elementary School Principals’ Association, the Massachusetts Municipal Association, the NAACP New England Area Conference, the Massachusetts Democratic State Committee, Progressive Massachusetts, and the Progressive Democrats of Massachusetts.

 On Tuesday, Moody’s Investments, one of the nation’s most widely-respected credit rating agencies, yesterday contacted officials in Boston, Fall River, Lawrence, and Springfield and warned that the passage of Question 2 could hurt their city’s financial standing, potentially causing their bond ratings to be downgraded. A weakening of the municipal credit ratings of the state’s largest cities would not only put their financial security in jeopardy, but would gravely impact the public services they provide for their residents, including public education.

~Save our Public Schools

Save Our Public Schools is a grassroots organization of Massachusetts families, parents, educators and students. We are committed to ensuring equal educational opportunity for every child; less testing and more learning; stopping the state from opening additional charter schools that will drain millions more from public education; increasing funding to provide high-quality public schools for all children; and protecting local control over schools. Our public schools cannot afford to lose vital funding while we are seeing programs cut and activities reduced. Learn more and sign up for updates at saveourpublicschoolsma.com.

1. http://saveourpublicschoolsma.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/FY17-Sending-District-Money-Lost.pdf
2. http://www.mass.gov/legis/journal/desktop/2015/fbrc.pdf
3. http://massteacher.org/~/media/Files/charter_schools/simulation_of_funding_loss.xls
4. http://www.massteacher.org/issues_and_action/charter_schools.aspx