Tuesday, December 15, 2015

Testimony, City Councilor Tito Jackson Charter School Attrition Hearings. December 15, 2015


Thank you for having these hearings, and for allowing me to testify today.

My name is John Lerner, I'm a BPS parent and I'm here to try and open some eyes to the reality of many, if not most, of Boston's charter schools.

It seems that I can't go for more than a few days without hearing about how Boston has the “highest preforming charter school sector in the country”.

That's a pretty incredible statement. In studies all over the rest of the country charter schools have been shown to be: some better than the local public schools, some the same as the local public school average, and some worse than the local public school average, but Boston, Boston's different. Our charter schools are better than all the rest, and not just a little better, they're leaps and bounds better. Our charter schools are miracle charter schools.

Except that they're not. Most of Boston's charter schools, if not all, cheat. The ones that don't cheat, or cheat less, struggle, and sometimes they actually get closed down.

They cheat by who gets in to their schools, and they cheat by skimming the cream of the crop of those that do get in.

We've been hearing a lot about English language learner populations (ELL) in Boston's charter schools lately. Entry into Boston's charter schools is by lottery. One would assume that with a lottery entry system that the charter schools student population would reflect the population of BPS. It doesn't. BPS has an ELL population that hovers at around 30%, yet I see charter schools (Brooke Charter, Roslindale, for example) that has an ELL population that is consistently below 1%, and in some years falls to as low as 2/10 of 1%. I'm not cherry picking data here. I looked at Brooke because they just became the highest preforming district in the state, so I looked at them, and I saw that how they got that statistic is, they cheat. They skim.

Two new studies, one by an MIT economics PhD candidate, and another by Boston's very own think tank “The Pioneer Institute”; tell us how well Boston's charter schools are doing with increasing ELL populations. The new Pioneer Institute study specifically cites Excel Academy in East Boston as an example of how charter school populations of ELL's are rising. Well... the fact is Excel Academy has an ELL population that is 48% lower than the BPS average. The Pioneer Institute would like you to believe that 48% lower is apples to apples - and that this is a good example of how charter schools are playing on a level field and doing a better job. They're not. Study after study that I see leave out small details - like populations that have a difference of 48 percent or more.

I could go on and on about the different ways Boston's charter schools cheat, because that's what it is when you claim you're the same as, but better than, and you're not, but this hearing is about attrition, namely, charter school attrition.

First, I'd like to point our that the attrition numbers on the DESE web site are useless. A direct quote from the DESE website:

This report provides the percentage of attrition by grade from the end of one school year to the beginning of the next for students enrolled in public schools, including charter schools, in the state.

AKA, over the summer.

The thing is, over the summer is not when the kids leave. The kids leave during the school year, and from what I hear, most leave right before testing in March. The fact that there's such a huge discrepancy between that the DESE website states as attrition, and the results you get by actually tracking a cohort through, is direct evidence that the students leave during the school year - and not over the summer.

I've tracked the true attrition of Boston's Charter High school cohorts, and I've tracked the attrition of some Boston Charter middle and elementary schools. The number I'm coming up with for an average is 13.49%. From what I've seen, Boston's charter schools lose an average of 13.49% of their students, each year. That's 40% of all the charter school kids every three years - 67.45% every four years.

With Boston having a charter school population of 8,500 - that would mean that somewhere around 1,150 children are returned to BPS, each year.

It goes without saying that some schools are better than that, and some schools are worse. The absolute worst I've seen (and I'll call them out on this because I think it might actually be criminal) is City on a Hill Charter School, Dudley. In 2013 - 106 children entered 9th grade at City on a Hill, Dudley. Only 55 of those children remained to return to school the next year. That's a loss of 48% of the cohort, in one year. 

I'd also like to mention that the out of school suspension rate for City on a Hill, Dudley was sky high that year, at 49%. For comparison, the state average for the same year was twelve times less than that, at 3.9%.

I call it “Punish/Push Out/Rinse/Repeat”.

That's one way you get the “Highest preforming charter sector in the country”.

I wouldn't care about this as much if this scam weren't hurting the vast majority of the children in Boston, but it is. The charter schools are now taking $122 million a year (nearly $1 million per school) away from BPS, and that harms 57,000 BPS school children, one of which happens to be my daughter.

I hope today's hearing marks the beginning of a much higher level of scrutiny of the Think Tanks and Economics Majors claims of the superiority of Boston's charter schools. I hope that myself and the other people testifying today are able open some eyes to what I consider to be nothing more than a house of cards. I hope that someday soon, possibly today, we can start to focus on what's necessary to actually educate Bostons children and not simple privatize education at the expense of Boston's children.

Thank you for your time and for your service.






Tuesday, December 8, 2015

Thank You, Elizabeth Setren

Hi Elizabeth,


I hear you've recently completed a paper on how well Boston charter schools are doing with English Language Learners (ELL's) That's so great.

I've looked at some Boston charter school ELL population percentages. I didn't know they (Boston charters) actually did a better job educating ELL's though. Thank you so much for pointing that out.


One thing I do wonder about is... how can a school that has a lottery entry system (like the one Brooke Charter, Roslindale has) have so few English language learners, year after year after year? Something seems a little tiny bit oddly strange here. Am I right? Probably just luck. No way of knowing.

Something else I've looked at, the horrendous attrition of Bostons charter schools.... (75% for Boston Prep Charter)

More here -> http://bit.ly/1OStjgJ

Funny, with the horrendous attrition of Boston charter schools, so many, many, children leaving, it's hardly surprising that a higher percentage of BPS children actually make it through high school and go on to college. 




All of this used to make me wonder why BPS is paying $122 million a year (nearly $1 million per BPS school) to these Boston charter schools that seem to be little more than spin, and nothing much more then a scam. Now I know. The fact that my daughters Boston public school has had to go to "Donors Choose" for pencils makes sense now.

Thanks again for pointing out how well the charter schools in Boston are doing with ELL students. So awesome. 

BPS Dad,
John Lerner


Tuesday, October 13, 2015

Testimony, Joint Comittee on Education 10/13/2015

Testimony Concerning Senate Bill S.326
A Moratorium on Commonwealth Charter Schools.


I'm here today in an effort to convince you to sign on as a sponsor of, and to advance out of committee, bill S.326, calling for an investigation of, and a moratorium on, Commonwealth Charter Schools in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

I'm constantly hearing the phrase, “Boston has the highest performing charter school sector in the country”. If you only look at test scores that appears to be true, but if you dig deeper and look at how the test scores are obtained, you'll see something that's not very pleasant, something that is horribly wrong. The charter high schools in Boston push out an average of 13.5% of a cohort a year. That works out to 40.5% every three years, and guess what? As a result - their test scores and grads to college stats soar.

A really interesting thing is, if you look at the number of students that entered high school as freshman in Boston Public Schools - that end up actually graduating and going on to college, and compare that to an aggregate of the six Commonwealth Charter high schools in Boston, BPS beats the charters, 51% to 46%. In BPS, 51% percent make it through high school and go on to college - 46% make it through the Boston charter high schools and go on to college. Even if you take out the three BPS exam schools the percentages are almost identical. BPS 44%, charter schools 46%.

I'd like to remind you that Boston is performing in the bottom 10% of school districts in Massachusetts. BPS also has a 24% higher ELL population then the Boston charter schools, yet somehow BPS is beating the “Highest Performing Charter School Sector in the Country” in the percentage of students that make it through high school and go on to college, and that's the goal, right, to become college and career ready?

Something is seriously wrong here.

The attrition rates I started out talking about - don't show up on the DESE web site. That's because DESE only counts the children that leave over the summer. The exact statement on their web site is:

This report provides the percentage of attrition by grade from the end of one school year to the beginning of the next for students enrolled in public schools, including charter schools, in the state.”

The fact that there is a huge attrition discrepancy between tracking a cohort through year to year - and what the DESE web site states, is a good indicator that the students are not leaving over the summer to go off to an exam school , but that students are leaving during the school year, when their leaving is not being reported by DESE.

A perfect example is Brooke Charter School in Mattapan, where Governor Baker announced his “Lift the Cap” bill last week. A Boston Globe editorial that also came out last week, about Brooke, opened by saying

One of the best schools in this city - and perhaps the whole state - sits on the edge of Mattapan”

and then went in to say,

Others suggest that charter schools get good results because they kick out the bad apples. But Brooke has one of the lowest attrition rates in the city.”

After reading this I took a look at the attrition at Brook. It turns out that the class that graduated 8th grade in 2015 started out in 5th grade with 47 students, and ended up with only 24 students remaining to enter 8th grade. That's an attrition rate of 49%. One half of the class disappeared, and they did not go off to exam school - because that attrition, students leaving over the summer, would have shown up in the DESE attrition statistics.

One way the charter schools get the students that they don't want to keep, to leave, is by suspending them, over and over, until the students and parents decide they simply can't go on like this. A good example of this practice is Roxbury Preparatory charter school, a school our new US Secretary of Education, John King, co-founded. Roxbury Prep isn't the worst in suspending students in the Boston charter sector - but John King is the one that set the standard on how to achieve what, at first glance, appears to be a great school.

The average suspension rate for students in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts over the last twelve years is 5.9%. John King's Roxbury Prep's suspension rate average over the last twelve years is not twice that, it's not even five times that, it's nearly ten times that, at 54.2%.

The average attrition rate at Roxbury Prep, for nine cohorts, starting with the cohort that graduated in 2006 and ending with the cohort that graduated in 2014, is perfectly on track with the Boston charter high school's yearly attrition average of 13.5% - and comes in at 13.3% - per year.

My family made the choice to send my daughter to a BPS school. I'm not sure any of what's going on with charter schools in Massachusetts would have come onto my radar if it weren't directly effecting my daughter and her schools funding.

Boston Public Schools is now sending $122 million a year to charter schools. That averages out to $953,000 for each and every one of the 128 BPS schools. The loss of 6-12 children from my daughters small school to charter schools each year results in a loss of funding of around $132,000 for BPS. The students we never get, that ones that went to charter schools in the first place, probably adds up to about twice that. This impacts our school to the degree that, in order to keep instructors in the classroom, all parts of our schools budget that can be slashed, have been. It's to the point where our teachers have posted on Donors Choose - asking for pencils.

I'm here today to ask you to stop what's happening here. I'm here today to ask you to let any bill that proposes to lift the cap on the number of charter schools in Massachusetts - die on the vine. I'm asking you to sponsor and advance bill S.326, calling for an investigation of, and a moratorium on, Commonwealth Charter Schools in Massachusetts.

I'm hoping that what's going on here can be exposed, and that the people that are responsible for this fraud will be punished.

Thank you for your service, and for allowing me to speak today.



Sunday, September 13, 2015

The Third Way - A New School System. The Higherest Preformingest School System Ever Seen.

I looked at some data again. I'm almost always shocked at the result. It tends to poke enormous holes in what's being sold on the street (and in the Massachusetts State House) as "excellence". 

A picture's worth a thousand words, so...

(Oh, keep in mind that Commonwealth Charter Schools are now taking $125 Million... a year.... away from Boston Public Schools) (That's nearly $1 million dollars, per school)

Here you go.


I know, jaw dropping. It seems impossible given the constant drumbeat of rhetoric from Education Reformers about children being "Trapped in failing schools", (the schools they've been busy defunding) but look for yourself, here's the data

And... according to the ed reformers, Boston has "the highest preforming charter school sector in the country".  Wow. I don't know about you, but to me, if that's true, I mean, wow.

As shocking as this all is, wait, it gets better.

Of the children that graduate and go onto college, the charter school children fare less well, again.


Lest I forget, documentation.

That's right, worserer and worserer, all mixed together.

So... what I think we need is a third school system. The Higherest Preformingest system ever seen. We can defund the two current separate and unequal school systems - because that's what happens when you set up parallel school systems that all draw from the same pool of children - the same way our predecessors did, by absolutely not giving a damn that Boston's schools are funded by per pupil funding, and that by developing and expanding a parallel system we will remove any remaining chance the vast majority of Boston children still have at receiving a good education. 

I can't wait to get started. Who's in?



John Lerner, Roxbury, MA. 
Member of the Boston Education Justice Alliance















Saturday, September 5, 2015

Is Ed Reform in Massachusetts About to Hit a Brick Wall?

AMENDMENT LANGUAGE
State Constitutional Provision
  • Mass. Const. art. XVIII, ? 2: “All moneys raised
    by taxation in the towns and cities for the support of public schools,
    and all moneys which may be appropriated by the commonwealth for the
    support of common schools shall be applied to, and expended in, no other
    schools than those which are conducted according to law, under the order
    and superintendence of the authorities of the town or city in which the
    money is expended;
    and no grant, appropriation or use of public money or
    property or loan of public credit shall be made or authorized by the commonwealth
    or any political division thereof for the purpose of founding,
    maintaining or aiding any other school or institution of learning,
    whether under public control or otherwise, wherein any denominational
    doctrine is inculcated, or any other school, or any college, infirmary,
    hospital, institution, or educational, charitable or religious
    undertaking which is not publicly owned and under the exclusive control,
    order and superintendence of public officers or public agents authorized
    by the commonwealth or federal authority or both, except that
    appropriations may be made for the maintenance and support of the
    Soldiers’ Home in Massachusetts and for free public libraries in any
    city or town, and to carry out legal obligations, if any, already
    entered into; and no such grant, appropriation or use of public money or
    property or loan of public credit shall be made or authorized for the
    purpose of founding, maintaining or aiding any church, religious
    denomination or society.” (Passed 11/06/1917)

Friday, September 4, 2015

Charles Yancey vs Billionaire Education Reform Movement Backed Andrea Campbell for Boston City Councilor

There's an election in Boston on November 3rd, and Bostonians have a city councilor race that's cause for concern. 

Mayor Walsh wants City Councilor Charles Yancey out, and here's why.
  • Councilor Yancey wants to put body cameras on police, which the Mayor strongly opposes.
  • Yancey has called for and held (30) audit hearings concerning the city's budget and spending.
  • Yancey has been hounding the Mayor (and the city) for city workforce diversity data (which, to date, the Mayor has been unwilling to provide)
  • Yancey has stood up for Boston's children and Boston Public Schools by voting NO on the cities education budget two years in a row - because of the $108 million Mayor Walsh has seen fit to underfunded our schools by over the last two years.

The powers that be - seem to have hand picked an opponent that will toe the line and not make waves. Her name is Andrea Campbell,  and some powerful people are backing her financially.

Councilor Yancey is working to ensure that all children will be given an opportunity to receive the best education possible. He strongly supports everyone enrolling the children they care for into any of the schools available to them, charter or public, and he's not against charter schools. At the same time, he can't help but see the disastrous consequence that having 42% of the states charter schools in Boston is having on the funding of the traditional public schools.

As a result of the expansion of charter schools in Boston, Boston Public Schools has lost an average of nearly one million dollars in funding, per school.

As a result of the expansion of charter schools in Boston, Boston's Public Schools have been forced to cut every position they can: all levels of service, teachers, busing, supplies, mental health services, food options, and schools are now asking for funding on DonorsChoose - for pencils

Councilor Yancey wants to see education in Boston improve for ALL children, not just the selected populations that the charter schools retain.


Councilor Yancey sees that the expansion of charter schools, without some drastic changes in funding mechanisms, will further harm the 57,000 students attending traditional public schools, 87% of which are minority children.

It's obvious that some of Andrea Campbells' backers might expect her help in blowing the lid off the charter school cap, and some of these same people would like nothing better than to force us to foreclose on the traditional public schools you and I have made a choice to send our children to. With the overwhelming evidence that many charter schools in Boston are little more than a scam, what other goal do you think they have - other than to take our public tax dollars and place them into private pockets?

In one city where this has already happened, Chicago, Twelve people haven't eaten since August 17th in an effort to save their one remaining open enrollment public school.

Councilor Yancey is fighting to stop this from happening here.

The traditional public schools in Boston are owned by us, funded by our tax dollars and attended by our children. Councilor Yancey will fight to keep local control of our schools. Councilor Yancey will fight to get our traditional public schools the funding they need to provide our children with a good education, and Councilor Yancey won't stand by and watch as 57,000 traditional public school children have their chance at a good education stripped away. 

Andrea Campbell's backers, well, seems some of them want to get rich by closing traditional public schools and opening privately managed charter schools - on the public's dime - consequences to the vast majority of Boston's children be dammed. 

District 4, I'm asking you to please vote for Charles Yancey for City Councilor on November 3rd. Our children and our city need to have him continue in his fight for us, and for all the children of Boston. 



John Lerner, Roxbury. 
Member of the Boston Education Justice Alliance.











Tuesday, June 2, 2015

DESE Ready to Further Decimate Boston Public Schools

Good news charter school "Proven Providers"! It looks as though the Boston Public Schools' budget crises has opened the door for an additional 668 Commonwealth Charter seats in the BPS school district.

I'm as surprised as you are.

Let's see how this works.
  •  Boston Public Schools',
  •  Due to rising costs,
  •  And the loss of over $125 million a year in tuition to Commonwealth Charter Schools,
  •  That help cause budget shortfalls totaling $108 million over the last two years,
  •  Resulting in cuts to all services imaginable, and facilitating the loss of hundreds of educators,
  •  Is about to get some help in being further de-funded - thanks to the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education offering 668 more Commonwealth Charter School seats in the BPS school district.




You see, the charter school cap is actually a spending cap - a percentage of district spending. In Boston, that percentage is 18%. As our costs and our spending go up, so will the number of charter school seats....

In Boston our schools are funded by enrollment. The loss of another 668 students to Commonwealth Charter Schools will take another $9,853.000, per year, away from BPS (at $14,750 per student), or, on average, another $78,200 per BPS school.

The 668 seat increase will bring the total Commonwealth Charter enrollment in Boston to around 9,168 students, and bring BPS's total loss of funding (tuition) to Commonwealth Charter Schools to right around $134,853,000 - annually.

On average, that 9,168 Commonwealth Charter School enrollment breaks down to 72.76 less kids, per BPS school.

On average, that means $1,073,238.10 less funding per BPS school.

On average, that means 2.97 less children in each and every BPS classroom.

What I want to know, and what I want DESE to explain to us is, what can a school that's already lost $1M in funding - cut out - with a loss of only 3 children per classroom? What additional cuts can a school make, considering the $108 million BPS has already absorbed in the underfunding of the last two years?

Now they're asking telling forcing BPS to take another 9.85 million dollar hit?

It's done. BPS is being decimated due to a man made ed reform crises, and it's killing any chance of success a BPS school might still have.

Just to be clear, Boston has no say in whether these new Commonwealth Charter Schools open or not. Our School Committee, and you and I, have no say. We will get new schools whether we need them or not. We will get new schools whether we want them or not.

This is what our Department of Elementary and Secondary Education thinks will help Boston? Help our children? Or is it because of one of the many well funded outside groups influence: Democrats for Education Reform, Stand for Children, Families for Excellent Schools, Unify Boston, or the Boston Foundation, that simply want schools to be privatized, no matter what the consequences?

The only good news I see is that the new seats need to be provided by "Proven Providers", and that's going to be really hard to find.

Let's take a look at some Boston charter schools - and what they are calling success.


Boston Foundation's 2014 Winner of its "Pozen Prize" for "Excellence".











So.... which one of these "Proven Providers" is worth expanding to further de-fund our traditional public schools? 

I really want to know.

I do know that people will say that "parents want choice". I know that we will hear "Failing Schools", "77,000 Reasons" and "Don't Steal Possible" - because the billionaire hedge-fund-manager funded "Unify Boston" and "Families for Excellent Schools" have been out canvasing for months, and placing full page ads in local newspapers, recruiting parents to chant exactly that.

With each Boston Public School now dealing with a mere 3 student per classroom decline in enrollment, that's resulted in an average of over $1 million dollars each school has had to cut in spending, who's stealing possible?

Choice? Boston parents have become extremely concerned about our choice of choosing to place our children in Boston Public Schools. That choice is being taken away from us, the vast majority of Bostonians with school children.

You can't tell me this is about improving schools. When I look at the data, it's obvious that it's not.

I can't believe that anyone actually thinks taking millions and millions of dollars in resources away from an urban, high needs, high poverty, high ELL, high minority district, to add charter schools that appear to be nothing more than a charade, is the answer to solving Bostons' problems.

The goal is something far different than actually helping children.



John Lerner, Roxbury BPS parent and member of the Boston Educational Justice Alliance.







Sunday, May 17, 2015

Families for Excellent Schools - NYC Hedge Funders Take Over Massachusetts Education

Please read the blog and then, if you would be so kind, sign the petition.

Families for Excellent Schools (AKA Unify Boston) is a New York City based lobbying, charter school promotion organization that has extremely deep pockets and is more than happy to bowl over anything, and anyone, that gets in the way of its goal of taking public tax dollars and placing them into private hands.

They spend humongous amounts of money to get what they want. I'm pretty sure $11 million dollars a year is way more than most "grass roots" (that's what they actually call themselves) organizations can come up with.

     From FESs' 990 tax filing last year

As a matter of fact, Families for Excellent Schools has set all time spending records, almost $1.5 million a month - for a multi month span, lobbying the New York State Legislature.

Oh, and heads up if you're a politician, you do not want to get in their way. In March of 2014 Families for Excellent Schools launched a three week, $3.6 million dollar attack on NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio because he stopped three privately owned Success Academy charter schools from setting up in publicly owned buildings.

But I want to talk about Massachusetts.


In December of 2014, Charlie Baker appointed Jim Peyser to be the new secretary of education for the Commonwealth. Before becoming our Secretary of Education, Mr. Peyser worked for... Families for Excellent schools. :(

     From FESs' 990 tax filing last year

Not surprisingly, Mr. Peyser is extremely pro charter school. As a matter of fact, he's so pro charter school that he wishes Mayor Walsh would care a lot less about the Boston Public Schools budget crises (the crises that is a result of charter schools taking $973,500,000 from each BPS school) and be more vocally pro charter school.


Boston Public Schools also has a new superintendent, Dr. Tommy Chang. Sadly, Dr. Chang is also from a charter school background. (If you think this is sounding bad for public schools in Boston, you would be right)

The funny thing about Dr. Chang becoming superintendent is that after a week long dog and pony show with panels interviewing candidates for the position of BPS superintendent, I knew who got the job (and who picked Dr. Chang) hours before the school committee vote. A friend sent me this text on March 3rd at 12:30 in the afternoon. The school committee vote "electing" Dr. Chang was at around 7:00 that night.


Last week (the last few weeks?) Dr. Chang appointed his cabinet. I'll give you one guess as to what organization his new chief of staff, Makeebe McCreary, worked (works?) for. That's right, the very organization that promotes lifting the charter school cap (and subsequently completely de-funding BPS) Families for Excellent Schools. 

What this is boiling down to is that - the people who are paying for and whose children attend BPS, the taxpayers and citizens of Boston, have lost all say in what happens in, and to, our schools. 

State wide and city wide, outside organizations are swooping in, swooping up our tax dollars and making decisions that should be our decisions. 

If you haven't read it yet, please read about the impact that charter schools have had, to the tune of $973,500.00 less funding, per BPS school, here.

These are our schools. Our children attend them. Our taxes pay for them. We do not want hedge fund managers from NYC infiltrating and taking over what belongs to us. As parents and Bostonians we need to speak up because we're the only ones that can - without fear of repercussion.


John Lerner, Roxbury BPS parent and member of the Boston Educational Justice Alliance.







Tuesday, May 5, 2015

A Guide for Boston Charter Schools*

How to Get Great Test Scores, a $5,971,713 Annual Bonus,
and Seriously Harm 54,312 Boston Public School Children**


I’m the dad of a Boston Public School 2nd grader. Over the last 16 months I’ve been, along with others, looking into Boston’s charter schools. It began when my 1st grader came home with a note in her backpack, in January of 2014, telling parents that her school will begin seeing serious underfunding in the 2014/2015 school year.

Not long after that note came home, a group of parents from Boston Public Schools began to band together to try and fix what turned out to be a $90M+ district wide shortfall for our FY15 school year.

As we talked and dug into this, one of the things we discovered was that because of the way charter schools are funded, by receiving all of their funding from a district's state aid, that charter schools would be taking about 50% of Boston’s state aid this school year. That’s $100M+ for 7,500 charter school kids, and $100M+ for 54,312 Boston Public School Kids. That information is part of what began to put Boston’s charter schools under the microscope.

We began to hear (from our newly formed parent network of thirty schools) that charter schools dump vast amounts of kids right before MCAS/PARCC testing in March. It’s called skimming, and they do it to boost their MCAS/PARCC test scores.*** I dug into it, and the push out turned out to be 100% true. The skimming practiced by six Boston charter schools can be seen here. To this day I don’t understand how this is allowed and wonder if this is actually unlawful. About a month ago the Massachusetts charter industry was running around with a “CREDO” study that stated how Boston charter schools outperformed Boston Public Schools. Well, this is how they do it - they dump all the kids that won’t test well, along with the ones that might hurt their graduates to college rate, back into the public schools. Anyone could do that. My eight year old could do that. Yet, instead of starting an investigation into fraud, our Governor and our Secretary of Education just can’t seem get enough of these “High Performing Charter Schools”. They think that more of this is the answer. It’s beyond me. They’ve seen these charts, because I’ve sent them to them, and they do nothing - except advocate for more charter schools.


But wait, that’s just the beginning. We (parents) kept hearing that the charter schools got to keep the money for the kids they dumped out in February, right before the testing. I posted this information in the comments section of a Scot Lehigh, Boston Globe, pro-charter-school editorial - and Mr Lehigh said he thought that the class population was taken monthly and that adjustments were made almost immediately. It looks like Mr. Lehigh was wrong. This is what’s on the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education website.


Whoa. I’m pretty sure that’s saying that it’s up to the charter schools to report the dumping of kids after February15th if they feel like it. If they don’t feel like it they get to keep all the funding, for the kids they no longer have, for the 40% of the school year that they don’t have them.

The following is my attempt to shed some light on and put some dollar amounts to what I believe is potentially - an enormous amount of fraud.

Let’s assume the charter schools don’t feel like reporting their skimming after February 15th, because, well…..
  • They don’t have to.
  • There’s no reason for them to.
  • They stand to keep a lot of money if they don’t.
  • They stand to lose a lot of money if they do.
  • This is exactly what we’ve been hearing that they do, from a variety of sources, for the last 16 months.
Given the Boston charter school industries track record of complete denial of their skimming practices, which are easily documented fact, there’s no reason to believe that they might suddenly begin to act in an honorable manner - especially when you see the amount of money involved, below.

So, if this all plays out the way I suspect it does, here’s the scam: (Some might call it a racket, or even - racketeering) Dump the kids right after February 15th. You get great test scores and you get to keep the $229,681.26**** remaining funding for the kids you dumped out/no longer enroll. Do you get what I’m saying? Each Charter School (possibly) gets to keep, on average, $229,681.26 for the last four months of the school year - for kids they’ve dumped back into the traditional public schools - (if they feel like it, of course)

And guess what BPS gets for taking these kids for the last 40% of the school year (if the charter’s don’t feel like reporting it) That’s right, nothing.

Using the Boston Charter School average of (possibly) scamming BPS out of $229,681.26 - per Boston charter school, per year, and multiplying that by the twenty six charter schools in Boston…. that’s $5,971,713 the charters get to keep, per year, for kids they don’t have - but hold on, it’s also $5,971,713 BPS doesn't get for kids, per year, that they do have. I think I’m coming up with a (probable) scam that’s actually valued at $11,943,426 per year. Am I right? That’s the (possible) total impact of this... situation? Yearly.

In Atlanta, teachers altered tests and went to jail. In Boston, charter schools alter who actually takes the tests - to change the schools test scores (level 1,2,3,4,5) and are hailed as saviors. I don’t really see a difference between the two. To me, both are cheating. To me, both appear unlawful. Both certainly should be against the law.

I don’t understand how this continues to go on, but I do know that a large part of the reason is because the Massachusetts press isn’t doing their job. Just a few days ago I saw that the pro charter school Boston Globe will be receiving funding from the Gates Foundation for “the ‘solutions’ approach to education journalism”. Seriously? Corporate ed reform is now funding the Globe to report on education? Is that even legal? I mean, for a real newspaper?


What I also don’t get is why no one with the power to stop this, is stopping this? It’s lying (year to year push-out/testing/fact) and stealing and corruption (probably fact) and it’s hurting children (fact). What one single part of that isn’t in itself enough for people to take action?

Hello Justice Department - Someone needs to launch an investigation. Someone needs to find out the truth, and if that truth is what parents have been hearing for the last 16 months, someone needs to see that the charter schools provide full restitution to the traditional public schools - and going forward, someone needs to protect the traditional public school children from scams like this.

If you’re a parent, or a concerned citizen, or a student, or a legislator, or a lawyer - and want to get involved - listed below are a few organizations you can join to help stop the destruction of, privatization of, corporate ed reform grab of, fleecing of, our public schools. (If you’re a legislator, please launch an investigation, pass a bill, make a law, do something)

Boston Educational Justice Alliance Facebook page.

Citizens for Public Schools Facebook page.

Quest (Quality Education for Every Student) Facebook page.

Less Testing More Learning Facebook page.

And coming soon to Boston - The Hedge Clippers Facebook Page.

I’m asking you to join up. I’m asking you to help. We’re true grass roots and we need your support. The money and the influence on the other side of this is huge, I’m talking Gates Foundation, Walton Foundation, Boston Foundation - huge, but we can win this fight, we can stop these scams, if we band together. We need to do that. Please “like” and “follow” all of the Facebook pages above. Show up to meetings when you can. Show up to events when you can. Take. Action. We can protect our schools, we can protect our children, and we will win this if we work together toward the common goal of saving public education .


John Lerner, public school dad and member of the Boston Educational Justice Alliance, Roxbury, Massachusetts.




Data Citations

*This document is referring specifically to Commonwealth Charter schools, not ''In-district" or "Horace Mann" charter schools.

**Maybe. I dare say, probably.

***Skimming year to year is documented. Concerning the push out in February, that’s what I hear, over and over. That’s why I’m calling for an investigation.

****My best dead reckoning. See the averages tab using the Data Citations link above.

Monday, May 4, 2015

The Slow Downward Spiral (Boston Public Schools)

*This post was updated on May 6, 2015. See notes at the bottom of the post.

I did some number crunching this morning. I start to wonder about things... and then I can't seem to let it go. Last week it was about the possibility of Boston Charter School enrollment fraud. By coincidence the Washington Post also ran a piece last week about charter fraud - that included enrollment fraud. 


But today I was wondering about the resource drain of, the financial impact of, Boston's Public Schools having lost 8,500 students to charter schools. 

It's interesting.

If you were to walk into a BPS classroom, I doubt you would notice the enrollment difference that losing all these kids to Charter schools has made. In a classroom, it's 2.6 kids. The Charter Schools enrollment of 8,500 means, on average, 2.6 less kids per BPS classroom

The thing is, that negligible 2.6 children per classroom translates to, on average, $979,492.00 less that the average BPS school receives in funding ($38,113.00 per classroom) than they would if they hadn't lost those 2.6 children.

The real problems for the public schools come from the fact that it's such a such a small number of students that have left each classroom. A school can't consolidate classrooms if two rooms have lost a combined total of 5.2 kids. A school can't let a teachers go because a classroom is down by 2.6 kids. The same goes for virtually all of the costs of operating the school. At a loss of 2.6 kids a classroom, the costs are still firmly fixed. The only thing that changes is that the school now has $979,492.00 less funding to somehow try and provide the same level of (or improved?) instruction. 

Regardless of how you feel about Charter Schools, the one thing I can guarantee that they have accomplished is setting into motion a vicious downward spiraling of Boston's Traditional Public Schools. 


With BPS schools now forced to try and educate with (on average) $979,492.00 less per school, something has to give and it's happening, right now. Boston Public Schools are cutting every position they can, all levels of service, from mental health to food, and asking for funding on DonorsChoose - for pencils

My daughters "highest poverty" school has been somewhat able to somewhat hold it together by fundraising $45,000 this year - but you see that DonorsChoose link above asking for pencils, that's us. 

Somehow our school was 5th in growth in the state last year, out of 1,930 Massachusetts schools, in English Language Arts. Somehow the kids haven't noticed that there's no extra paper to draw on, that the adults in the classrooms are now mostly college interns, that we have no gymnasium, no library and no auditorium. Somehow they're really happy and somehow they're really learning. I just can't help but wonder how amazing this school could be with hundreds and hundreds of thousands of more dollars a year - and I can't help but think about the schools that are facing hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars of less funding next year. How are they going to survive? How are they going to improve? 

We need real answers, and we need them now. The two things I know that we don't need more of are more charter schools and outside organizations - syphoning off further precious dollars from BPS. 

If we really want all children to receive a good education, we should look at what's been done in the past to bring an under preforming school up to a level 1 - as in, what's been successful, what resources did that accomplishment take. Then we need to find the revenue to provide those resources and then apply them across the board. That's assuming we're really serious about improving public schools, which as time goes by, with my first hand witnessing of the systematic de-funding of the traditional public schools and the enormous push for even more of that, I'm no longer convinced that improving public education is what this is really all about.


John Lerner - BPS Dad and member of the Boston Educational Justice Alliance


*This blog post was updated with more accurate numbers, provided by DESE Commisioner Mitchell Chester, on May 6th, 2015. My original number of 7,800 charter students has been changed to
8,500. That change brought the loss of students per classroom average up to 2.6, from 2.5 It also brought the average tuition lost per school up to $979,492.00, from $899,750.00