Will defeat of charter school expansion in Mass. reverberate to R.I.?

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Massachusetts voters on Tuesday resoundingly defeated a ballot question calling for a major expansion of charter schools, an outcome that some observers say will reverberate nationally.

 Rhode Island has recently engaged in its own debate over charter schools, which resulted in new laws that restrict their growth and allow school districts to withhold a certain percentage of their per-pupil spending from charters.

 The Bay State measure would have allowed for 12 new or expanded charters per year, adding substantially to its 78 existing charters. With its defeat, the question becomes whether this vote will have an impact on the charter discussion in Rhode Island.

The answer depends on where you stand on the efficacy of charters overall. Critics like Robert Walsh, executive director of the National Education Association Rhode Island, said the Massachusetts vote will galvanize opposition in Rhode Island.

It's a clarion call," he said, "to take a thoughtful pause and look at the fundamental differences between the mayoral charter model that Achievement First has and the continuing experiment going on [in the locally grown charters]."

In Massachusetts, the defeat was cast as a major win for teachers' unions and civil-rights organizations, which claimed that charters were diverting too much money from traditional school districts. But Tim Ryan, executive director of the Rhode Island School Superintendents' Association, said opposition to the Bay State question was broad-based, including school committees and parent-teacher associations.

"I think it resonates regionally," said Tim Duffy, executive director of the Rhode Island School Association of School Committees. "If, against all local opposition, the Achievement First expansion comes into existence, you will see a major backlash in the legislature."

Achievement First, which operates two elementary schools in Providence, has applied to more than triple its current enrollments by 2026-2027. Critics, including several local elected officials and school district teachers, say that taking more than 2,000 students from the traditional public schools will have devastating financial consequences, especially for Providence. Under state law, the per-pupil spending follows the child from the sending school to the charter school.

Tim Groves, executive director of the Rhode Island League of Charter Schools, doesn't think the Massachusetts vote will have implications for Rhode Island. The league represents the mom-and-pop charter schools.

"I don't see any relationship between the Massachusetts ballot and what's going on with Achievement First," he said. "In terms of scale and scope, Massachusetts is far afield from what we're doing here, where we have incremental growth."

While Massachusetts already has almost 80 charters, Rhode Island only has 22, with a cap of 35.

"I don't think there is any message for us," Groves said.

Preston Green, a professor of education and law at the University of Connecticut, thinks the Massachusetts blowout will resonate nationally, particularly with a Donald Trump presidency. President-elect Trump has said that he supports school choice, including setting aside $20 billion for school vouchers.

"President-elect Trump has signaled that he wants an expansion of charter schools and vouchers," Green said. "The Massachusetts referendum is important because it raises concerns about the potential impact of charters on the entire school system."

 "I would argue that the legislature has a responsibility to ensure all public schools run well," he said. "If you start creating a dual system, you run the risk of creating two separate but unequal systems. They end up cannibalizing each other."

— lborg@providencejournal.com

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