Candal: New school 'reform' erects new barriers
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Since passage of the 1993 Education Reform Act, Massachusetts has taken a different path on school reform than other states have. It's taken a different path on standards, testing, accountability - and also on charter schools.
Our state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE) is the sole authorizer of charter schools, and until recently, our authorizing process was unusually rigorous.
Charter schools were granted broad autonomy in return for strict accountability for results. The BESE upheld its end of the deal by shutting down schools that didn't perform well.
By any measure, this approach has worked well. Although charters account for less than 3 percent of Massachusetts public school students, four of the 10 top-scoring schools on this year's tenth grade MCAS math exam were charter schools, as were three of the top 10 performers in English language arts.
This success hasn't gone unnoticed. In one recent poll, 44 percent of respondents supported charter schools, while only 19
