Sitting on a child’s stool at the Children’s Museum, Governor Deval Patrick signed a sweeping education bill yesterday that will greatly increase the number of charter schools, grant superintendents the power to overhaul failing districts, and make the state eligible for up to $250 million in federal stimulus money.
“We are standing up for children,’’ Patrick said before an upbeat gathering of educators, politicians, pupils, and parents. “We are showing those hungry minds in our classrooms that we believe in them.’’
The governor trumpeted the bill as a once-in-a-generation achievement designed to narrow the performance gaps that still plague many pupils from poorer households, despite the state’s stellar showing on standardized tests. “We can tolerate it no longer,’’ Patrick said.
The legislation, which required compromise with a passionate array of entrenched interest groups, should serve as a template for debate on other major issues, the governor said. Now, he added, the responsibility for reform shifts from Beacon Hill to the communities and classrooms where the day-to-day business of teaching occurs.