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The Boston Foundation recently released a study about the Boston Public School System. Charter school proponents are citing this study when asking Board of Education Commissioner Mitchell Chester, Governor Deval Patrick and Massachusetts Secretary of Education and voting Board of Education member Paul Reville to lift the statewide charter cap and to approve the three proposed charter schools to open 2010. The GCA charter application, in all of its misleading glory, is receiving renewed attention as a result of this study. This is unfortunate as the Gloucester Public School System is not the Boston Public School System. Our challenges, demographic and size are different from that of the BPS and it is illogical to use the findings of this study to push the GCA charter forward. Furthermore, the weaknesses (as argued in earlier blog posts) of the GCA charter application are as alive as ever. Gentle reminders:

1. Gloucester does not need this charter. The GCA charter application is about imitation, not innovation. Our district has been struggling with staff cuts, program cuts and growing class sizes since 2002. Our district will be devastated by more cuts, more school closures, larger class sizes should this charter pass. It is as important as ever to make noise about the weaknesses of the GCA charter application.

2. Gloucester's elected officials and hundreds of parents, teachers and students do not want this charter. Hundreds of people wrote letters to Mitchell Chester asking that the GCA application be rejected. Now that the period for public commentary about the proposed charter school has closed, there has been a statewide pro charter letter writing campaign. Of course people can write letters at any time about issues that are compelling to them, but the fact that the Boston Foundation study was released AFTER the Board of Education 1/5/09 letter writing deadline raises questions about the lobbying methods of charter proponents. Had Gloucester letter writers been able to respond to the Boston Foundation study, they would have pointed out the obvious problems with using this study, limited to Boston, to make the case for a charter school in Gloucester.

3. Please use the links and addresses to take a few minutes to write to one or more of the following. Please ask that the GCA charter proposal be considered independently of the recent Boston Foundation findings. Ask that the GCA charter application be appropriately analyzed, citing misinformation where necessary.

Governor Deval Patrick

Secretary of Education Paul Reville: paul_reville@gse.harvard.edu

Reville says that he is reading the letters sent to him.

Lt. Governor Tim Murray: jen@timmurray.org

Senator Bruce Tarr

Board of Education: boe@doe.mass.edu

Thank you for your efforts.

Best, Jane