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Thursday, September 17, 2015

Class Act | EduShyster

Class Act | EduShyster:

Class Act



Why a civil rights law suit to lift the charter cap in Massachusetts could turn out to be the worst idea charter proponents have ever had…
white-bucks-2 (1)Quick reader: when is it perfectly appropriate to wear white after Labor Day? Why, when one is a legal eagle of the *white shoe* variety. This week, three of Boston’s whitest white shoe law firms, WilmerHale, Goodwin Procter LLP and FoleyHoag LLP, filed a class action law suit on behalf of the kids, vs the state’s charter cap—a  day that we secretly feared would never arrive due to the seemingly universally held opinion that the suit is a terrible idea.
Defend this!
The suit names as defendants the state’s education commissioner, Mitchell D. Chester, the nine members of the state Board of Education, board chair Paul Sagan and Secretary of Education James Peyser. That sound that you just heard, reader, was my fingers laughing whilst typing, a sentiment I think I also detected in this Globestorywhich captures the irony that the defendants also happen to be amongst the most prominent proponents of charter schools in the state.
Peyser and Sagan are being targeted because they are responsible for enforcing the charter cap even though they, like Governor Baker, oppose it. Peyser is a nationally known charter school advocate who helped launch the charter school movement in Massachusetts. Sagan is a former chairman of 
Class Act | EduShyster: