"Charter school proposals in Lynn and Worcester won endorsement from a top state education official yesterday as part of an annual review process that has come under intense scrutiny in the past year."
The state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education will vote on the recommendations at its monthly meeting Tuesday. The proposed Lynn Preparatory Charter School and the Spirit of Knowledge Charter School in Worcester hope to open this fall.
The way charter schools are reviewed has been a subject of controversy in recent months, after the state’s commissioner of elementary and secondary education, Mitchell Chester, was accused of ulterior motives in recommending approval of a Gloucester charter school last year. Critics have seized upon a 2009 e-mail from Paul Reville, the state’s education secretary, in which he urged Chester to recommend the school to win support among charter school proponents for Governor Deval Patrick’s overall education agenda.
The state board ultimately approved the recommendation, over intense