New England Public Radio

The Short List: Looking Back At 2016 And Ahead To 2017

What made The Short List this week?

  • Last year, our panelists predicted that casinos — in Connecticut and Springfield — would dominate the headlines in 2016. Were they right?
  • In 2016, what most surprised our esteemed journalists? On-schedule construction and the big league defeat for charter schools.
  • From backyard gardening to big Holyoke political changes to Gov. Charlie Baker’s political fortunes (or misfortunes), what’s on the docket for 2017?
  • And over the next year, our panel vows to write better headlines, avoid shaky sourcing and do a better job of covering that most important of local institutions — the school committee.

Click the audio player above to hear New England Public Radio’s Susan Kaplan explore these issues with Matt Szafranski of Western Mass Politics & Insight and Mike Dobbs of the Reminder newspapers.

Fact Checking Two Issues In The Debate On Charter Schools

Last week, we hosted a short debate on Question 2 on this year’s Massachusetts ballot. That’s the measure to allow up to 12 charter schools to open or expand in the state per year. Charters are publicly funded schools that operate independently of school committees. During the debate, two conflicts arose that we wanted to fact check.

LISTEN: Full debate on Question 2

District Reimbursements

The first issue is about how local school district funding is impacted when students leave for charters. When that happens, the money follows the student. But that lost funding for the public schools is supposed to be reimbursed by the state.

In our debate, Rachel Romano, the founder of Veritas Prep Charter School in Springfield, represented the pro-charter side. She argued that school districts are sufficiently reimbursed.

“The reimbursement is real and it happens,” Romano said. “The school committees need to learn how to adjust to that because the reality is families need choices.”

Barbara Madeloni, head of the Massachusetts Teachers Association, represented the opposition to the charter question in our debate. She had a different take.

“The reimbursement doesn’t happen. In fact, we haven’t had full reimbursement for the last four years,” Madeloni said. “We have a budget that’s underfunded by a billion dollars already for public education.”

Here’s the reality: Reimbursements do happen, but like the rest of the state budget, they are at the mercy of the legislature. According to state data, school districts were nearly fully reimbursed through fiscal year 2014. But in the past two years, the reimbursement dropped off significantly. It was 69 percent funded two years ago and 62 percent funded last year.

Students Served By Veritas Prep

The second conflict in our debate was over the kind of students served by Rachel Romano’s school, Veritas Prep in Springfield.

“Ms. Romano’s own school serves half of the number of ELL (English Language Learner) students, and fewer special education students and students who are economically disadvantaged than the Springfield Public Schools,” Madeloni alleged.

“What you said about my school is not true,” responded Romano. “So look up the data, it supports itself.”

We did look up the data. Madeloni exaggerated a bit when talking about English Language Learners, but she’s right that Veritas’ student body does include a smaller percentage of ELL students than Springfield Public Schools as a whole. Last school year, 9.8 percent of Veritas’ students were categorized as ELL, compared to 16.3 percent of the district’s population.

The most recent numbers available also back up Madeloni’s claim that Veritas serves a smaller percentage of special education and low income students than the district. 14.5 percent of Veritas’ students were in special education in the 2014-15 school year, while the same category of students made up 19.5 percent of Springfield Public Schools. Low income students were 59.6 percent of Veritas’ population in 2015-16, while they encompassed 67.1 percent of the entire district. The differences aren’t huge, but they are there.

There’s much more to both these issues. You can listen to the full debate here.

___________________

Correction: earlier on-air and web versions of this story mistakenly referred to the charter school measure by the wrong ballot question number. It is Question 2.

The Week Ahead on Beacon Hill

There’s a wide variety of hearings and topics ahead at the Statehouse this week. One likely contentious formal session will be held on Thursday, as the Massachusetts Senate considers charter school expansion legislation.  As we do most Monday’s,  we check in with Matt Murphy at the Statehouse News Service. He tells New England Public Radio’s Carrie Healy that the compromise bill has charter backers and opponents both unhappy.

 

For Carrie Healy’s conversation with Matt Murphy about the week ahead on Beacon Hill, click the audio player above.

Sponsors of Mass. Ballot Petitions Face First Deadline This Week

In Massachusetts, sponsors of potential ballot questions for 2016 face a deadline this week: the language for their proposals must be submitted to the state by Wednesday. Several groups had planned to put questions relating to the Boston Olympics bid on the ballot. That bid died last week, but State House News Service reporter Matt Murphy says there are plenty of non-Olympics issues that could make the ballot.

“We’re looking at everything from petitions to legalize marijuana in Massachusetts, to other questions about increasing charter school seats in the state, maybe a referendum on whether or not the state should participate in Common Core,” says Murphy.

Other possible initiatives include public records reform, and a proposal to raise taxes on residents who earn more than a million dollars a year. After this week’s deadline, Attorney General Maura Healey must decide which proposals can move forward.

State House News Service contributed to this report.

Correction: an earlier version of this story stated the ballot petition deadline is this Thursday. The deadline is Wednesday.

New Charter School in Springfield Accepting Applications

A new charter school in Springfield that will provide an early focus on college prep and admissions is now accepting applications for its lottery, and hosting information sessions for parents.

Veritas Prep Charter School will be a tuition-free, public school for students in grades 5 through 8. It received approval from the Massachusetts Board of Elementary and Secondary Education earlier this year, and its doors will open in the fall of 2012. Rachel Romano, the school's director and principal, says she's eager to reach out to parents of current fourth-graders because the school will start by filling a single class of 5th graders.

"All residents of Massachusetts, students who reside in the state of Massachusetts, are eligible to apply for the school. Because the school will be located in Springfield, Springfield students will get priority."

Veritas Prep students will have a longer school day, just over eight hours, and a 190-day school year, which is 10 days longer than the current Springfield public school calendar. Romano says emphasis in the classroom will be on math and literacy and students will be engaged in discussions about college early on.

"We want Veritas Prep students to not be asking the question, "Am I going to college?" but to be asking the question,"Where am I going to college?" and so really putting kids on a path to college long before high school and making sure that they're going into high school prepared for college prep curriculum."
 
Romano says the school is about to sign a lease for a building near Springfield's South End. The application process for parents is free and involves filling out a form with basic contact information. Parents and students are applying to enter a lottery, and the deadline is January 31st. Parents are invited to attend an information session on Monday evening at 6 in the Springfield Public Library on State Street.