Guest opinion: Charter would add, not subtract, from public education on the SouthCoast

The proposal for the SouthCoast Innovators Charter School deserves strong community support. I can state unequivocally, given my years of experience serving as Mayor of Fall River, and my understanding of municipal finance and the community need for educational opportunities, it will not subtract from public education in the region, it will add to it.

The proposed new charter public school will open opportunities for economic mobility for more than 700 children in Grades 6-12 in Fall River and New Bedford by preparing them for STEM careers. Innovators’ Early College-focused model will introduce students to the benefits – and demands – of college, and instill the readiness skills necessary for their success through high-quality academic advising, coaching, and social-emotional support.

Most importantly — and distinctively — through partnerships with area colleges, all students will take courses and graduate with a minimum of 12 and up to 60 college credits — a huge savings for families off the cost of a college education.

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Less than 1-in-5 ninth-graders in the Fall River and New Bedford School systems gain a post-secondary degree within six years of graduating, according to state data. Without further education, we know that high school graduates struggle to find employment and, even when they are able to, they earn less than minimum wage, on average, over the course of a year. That’s not a standard we should accept for our young people.

If we are going to change this trajectory, we must embrace strategies like Early College, particularly for first generation students, students from economically disadvantaged backgrounds, and students of color.

Opposition to the proposal has focused on money. I respect the opinions on both sides of this issue, but to look at this only from a budgetary standpoint is shortsighted. Parents already have a variety of public school options in the region — our two districts (and the options within them), vocational technical high schools, and existing charter public schools. When parents decide which of these models best meets the needs of their children, public funding follows those children to that public school.

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Likewise, parents who decide to send their children to Innovators will be directing where public funding will go to support their children’s public education. The district, while losing those students and the funding that supported their education, will not be left empty handed. The state - recognizing that districts need time to adjust - provides three years of additional local aid to communities that lose students to charter public schools. Every penny is reimbursed the first year, 60 percent the second year and 40 percent the third year.

This is complicated, but important to understand. If Innovators enrolls its projected 315 children in the fall of 2022, it will receive $5 million from the state for their education. But the district will also receive $5 million from the state even though it will no longer be educating those kids. Additionally, the district will receive $3 million in the fall of 2023 and $2 million in the fall of 2024 for a total of $10 million in state reimbursement aid. This is a rolling reimbursement, and the three-year clock starts every time an increase in funding is reallocated to charters. Since Innovators won’t be fully enrolled until the fall of 2026, the district will continue receiving reimbursements through 2028.

The “losses” highlighted by the districts also assume no new students enroll in the district schools to fill the empty seats vacated by the charter students. But over the past decade, New Bedford’s and Fall River’s school populations have continued to grow - even as charter enrollment has grown. New students have filled the 800 seats New Bedford lost to charters and added 300 more between 2010 and 2020. Fall River replaced the 1,000 students who chose charters and added 600 more. As those new students have filled those seats, new funding arrives from the state to educate those new students - as well as the reimbursement money.

The model Innovators is proposing is needed in this region. There have been encouraging initiatives of late at Durfee and New Bedford High Schools in partnership with UMass Dartmouth and Bristol Community College. These options are not as immersive as what Innovators is proposing and should not be a reason to restrict new paths to success. There is room for multiple ways to support and educate students and certainly plenty of need.

It’s unfortunate that this is being presented, by some, as a zero-sum game - where someone wins and someone loses. It’s important for local officials, community leaders and educators to look at the bigger picture when it comes to whether new public school models will benefit their communities and couple that with honest attempts to provide the public with that fuller view to form an educated opinion for themselves.

Edward M. Lambert is the Executive Director of the Massachusetts Business Alliance for Education and the former Mayor of Fall River.

This article originally appeared on The Herald News: Guest opinion: Charter would add to public education on the SouthCoast