"FORTY YEARS ago, I changed schools. On the South Side of Chicago, my school had few books, 40 children in a classroom (most of us poor), teachers whose role was mainly to keep order, and police at every intersection of the halls. The school I changed to was a private New England prep school with small classes, longer school days, teachers with the latitude to innovate and experiment, and high expectations of each child."I still want to change schools. But private schools are not the answer. Public schools are where most children get their education, and they should be consistently excellent.
The Legislature is now in final deliberations on a new education bill I filed last July that will close, once and for all, the pernicious achievement gaps that damage the lives of low-income, special needs and minority children. I applaud the House and the Senate for bringing us to the precipice of real and lasting reform.
The bill promotes the creation of “Innovation Schools’’ - a new type of public school featuring more autonomy and flexibility. It authorizes a targeted lift of charter school caps in the Commonwealth’s lowest-performing school districts, allowing only those charter operators with a proven record of successfully serving high needs students. Most important, it expands the ability of local superintendents or the commissioner of education to intervene in low-performing schools by providing new tools to attract the best and brightest educators, and new supports to help teachers, students and families overcome the disadvantages of poverty.