Editorial Staff

Press Release: Pioneer Files Amicus Brief on Behalf of Plaintiffs in Boston Charter School Case

/in , , , , , , , /by Editorial Staff
Share on Facebook
Share on Twitter
Share on
LinkedIn
+

Joins with Black Alliance for Educational Options and Cheryl Brown Henderson to argue that case should be allowed to proceed to discovery

BOSTON — Through its public interest law initiative PioneerLegal, Pioneer Institute has filed an amicus brief in an important case about public education that will be argued today before Massachusetts’ Supreme Judicial Court (SJC).

Download Amicus Brief

In 2015, five Boston Public School students who did not win lotteries for admission to charter public schools and were relegated to failing district schools brought suit, asserting that they were denied equal protection and the right to an adequate public education as guaranteed by the Massachusetts Constitution.  The trial court dismissed the suit, and the appeal is before the state’s highest court.

Pioneer was joined on the brief by the Black Alliance for Educational Options and Cheryl Brown Henderson – daughter of the late Rev. Oliver L. Brown, who is the named plaintiff in the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark Brown vs. Board of Education case.

“The plaintiffs have at the very least made a case that entitles them to seek evidence from the Commonwealth and the City of Boston that they may use to prove their claims,” said PioneerLegal Senior Fellow in Law & Public Policy John Sivolella.

In dismissing the case without discovery, the trial court judge ruled that the state need not come forward with any evidence to show why it has chosen to limit charter school seats in Boston, and relegate the plaintiff school children to inadequate schools.

The plaintiffs allege that the schools to which they were assigned have failed to provide them with an education that qualifies as adequate under the Massachusetts Constitution, that 20 years of results from Boston charter schools demonstrate that charters unquestionably provide an education that meets the constitutional standard, and that the status quo is neither rational nor responsive to the problem.

Three of the plaintiffs attend so-called Level 3 schools, which are in the bottom 20 percent compared to their peers.  Two more attend Level 4 schools.  Schools in Levels 4 and 5 are in the bottom 4 percent of schools statewide.  The Boston Public Schools were designated as a Level 4 district in 2010, the year the current system for measuring school performance was adopted, and have remained there every year since.

The pace of improvement in Boston has been painfully slow.  The percentage of students scoring proficient in state English language arts testing rose from 46 percent in 2010 to 49 percent in 2014.  At that rate it will take another 30 years before Boston Public Schools match the current statewide level of proficiency.

By contrast, the success of the city’s charter schools has been striking.  Stanford University’s Center for Research on Education Outcomes, which studies charter school performance nationwide, found that the improvement in math and reading scores in Boston charters was the largest they have seen.

The Brookings Institution described the test score gains produced by Boston charters as some of the largest ever documented for an at-scale educational intervention and found that those gains were particularly large for disadvantaged students.

A Harvard study found that “oversubscribed charter schools in the Boston area are closing one half of the Black-White achievement gap in math… in a single year.”

Not surprisingly, applications to Boston charter schools more than doubled for the 2017-18 school year, shattering previous records.

“Imagine if the state developed a treatment that addressed what had previously been incurable health problems affecting children in state care, but then denied that treatment to children in underprivileged areas,” said Pioneer Institute Executive Director Jim Stergios. “That would be unthinkable. And yet we are doing the very same thing by allowing Boston children to languish in failing district schools, even while next door charters provide a demonstrably superior education.”

The SJC has ruled in the past that the Commonwealth’s elected officials have an affirmative obligation to devise a plan and identify funding sources sufficient to ensure the Massachusetts Constitution’s adequate education mandate.

If the appeal is successful, the case will be remanded to the trial court to begin discovery.  And the Commonwealth will be required to come forward with a rational explanation, supported by evidence rather than rhetoric, for limiting available charter seats while school children like the plaintiffs are left behind in underperforming district schools.

Pioneer Institute and PioneerLegal

Pioneer Institute, Inc. (“Pioneer”) is an independent, non-partisan, privately funded research organization that seeks to improve the quality of life in Massachusetts through civic discourse and intellectually rigorous, data-driven public policy solutions based on free market principles, individual liberty and responsibility, and the ideal of effective, limited and accountable government.

Pioneer focuses on achieving policy goals in four issue areas: expanding access to high-performing schools; increasing affordable, high-quality healthcare options; ensuring that government services are efficient, accountable and transparent; and growing prosperity and economic opportunity.

PioneerLegal, as the public-interest law initiative of Pioneer, utilizes a legal-based approach to work to change policies that adversely affect the public interest in Pioneer’s core policy areas.  PioneerLegal’s substantive work is consistent with the mission of Pioneer as it clearly develops and promotes its brand as a public-interest law initiative.

Get Updates on Our Charter Schools Initiative

Related Research

Charter School Success: Importance in Suffolk County and College Enrollment

Learn about how charter schools set students up for success, especially in urban areas like Suffolk county. MCAS scores and college enrollment are stats that point to the impact of Charter schools.

Poll Finds Charter Schools Widely and Broadly Popular in Massachusetts

More than six years after the failure of a statewide ballot initiative that would have increased the number of charter public schools in Massachusetts, a poll shows that 62 percent either strongly or somewhat favor them, with only 16 percent opposed.

Room to Grow: Study Identifies Opportunity for New Charter Schools in State’s Gateway Cities

0 Comments
/
The Commonwealth’s 26 Gateway Cities represent a strong opportunity for the establishment of new charters and/or expansion of existing schools, according to our new study.

D.C.’s Kevin Chavous on National School Choice Week

0 Comments
/
This week on The Learning Curve, Cara and Gerard talk with Kevin Chavous, president of Stride K12, Inc. and a former member of the Council of the District of Columbia, on the growing movement toward school choice in education. Chavous discusses recent Supreme Court rulings and the expansion of school choice programs, education savings accounts, and vouchers.

Study Urges Massachusetts to Embrace Innovative School Models

A new policy brief from Pioneer Institute urges Massachusetts policymakers to encourage the proliferation and progress of non-traditional models that offer families creative, flexible, personalized and low-cost private education options.

NACSA’s Dr. Karega Rausch on Charter Public School Authorizing

This week on “The Learning Curve," Cara Candal and Gerard Robinson talk with Dr. Karega Rausch, President and CEO of the National Association of Charter School Authorizers. Dr. Rausch shares some of his background, his interest in K-12 education reform and charter public schools, and lessons from Indiana and other states that inform his work.

Two Stars in a Glowing Voc-Tech Education System

“A Tale of Two City Schools: Worcester Tech and Putnam Academy Become Models for Recovery” is a new white paper by Pioneer Institute that analyzes how Worcester Tech and Putnam Academy — schools with high numbers of low-income and special needs students — leapt from the bottom of Massachusetts voc-tech rankings to become leaders among local schools.

Book Finds Massachusetts Voc-Tech Schools Are National Model, Calls for Expansion

Massachusetts vocational-technical schools -- boasting minuscule dropout rates, strong academic performance, and graduates prepared for careers or higher education -- should be expanded to meet growing demand, according to a new book published by Pioneer Institute.

Accelerating Learning at KIPP

KIPP Academy Charter School is working hard to ensure that all students have access to high-quality instruction, especially as children everywhere struggle with post-COVID learning recovery. In this video, KIPP Academy Executive Director Nikki Barnes and KIPP Academy Lynn Middle School Principal Jimmy Seter allowed us into their in-depth discussion of the principles, objectives and strategies they use to foster an environment of encouragement, informed guidance, learning growth, and equity. 

Study Finds Continued Growth in Education Tax-Credit Scholarship Programs

Education tax credits grew increasingly popular in 2021, with four more states enacting programs.  There are now 28 tax-credit scholarship (TCS) programs in 23 states, and they serve more than 325,000 students, according to a new study published by Pioneer Institute.

Andrew Campanella on National School Choice Week

This week on “The Learning Curve," co-hosts Gerard Robinson and Cara Candal talk with Andrew Campanella, the president of National School Choice Week. They discuss why 2021 was called the “Year of School Choice,” and the implications of more academic options for K-12 education reform across America.

Study Finds Massachusetts Would Benefit from Adopting Education Savings Accounts

Massachusetts provides fewer options for students to be educated outside their assigned school districts than most other states do, and educational savings accounts (ESAs) offer an effective tool for giving students additional opportunities, according to a new study published by Pioneer Institute.

Virtual Learning Grows During COVID

Virtual learning in K-12 education continues to grow due to the health threat caused by coronavirus variants and the assistance this learning model can provide to at-risk students, according to two papers released today by Pioneer Institute.

Pioneer Institute Files Amicus Curiae Brief in U.S. Supreme Court School Choice Case

Pioneer Institute has filed an amicus curiae brief in Carson v. Makin urging the Supreme Court of the United States to strike down a provision of Maine law. The Court will hear oral arguments in Carson this morning (December 8) at 10 am. The Maine law being challenged allows districts that don’t have their own schools to contract with a school or pay for students that choose to attend public or private schools, but explicitly excludes religious schools.

Match Charter Public School Founder Mike Goldstein on School & Teacher Prep Reform

This week on “The Learning Curve," co-hosts Gerard Robinson and Cara Candal talk with Mike Goldstein, the founder of the MATCH Charter School and MATCH Teacher Residency in Boston.

Study: After Years of Steady Increases, Homeschooling Enrollment Rose Dramatically During COVID

After steadily increasing for years, the number of parents choosing to homeschool their children skyrocketed during the pandemic, and policy makers should do more to acknowledge homeschooling as a viable option, according to a new study published by Pioneer Institute.

A Conversation about Massachusetts Charter Schools: Retention Rate and Age Trends Among Public Educators

Massachusetts was home to 400 school districts in the 2020-2021…

Nina Rees on the 30th Anniversary of Charter Public Schools in America

This week on “The Learning Curve," Gerard and Cara celebrate the 30th anniversary of charter schools with Nina Rees, President and Chief Executive Officer of the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools.