The othering of a Lynn charter school

Boston Globe

31-03-2025

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You might think, then, that the state would be eager to let the academy expand. But think again.
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The fractious debate leading up to the board's rejection provides a bracing study in the intransigence and sometimes pretzel logic of the state's education establishment toward public charter schools, even very good ones.
In last month's board meeting, the Lynn teachers union asserted that the academy did not meet state standards for adding charter seats — even though the department and the state school commissioner had
Other opponents testified that because KIPP Academy has a lower percentage of English language learners than the heavily immigrant Lynn Public Schools, it was effectively leaving the district with the more difficult and expensive task of educating recent immigrants.
While this may be partly true, the suggestion that the academy is siphoning off only more proficient or privileged students is a stretch. Admission is by lottery. Nearly a third of the school's new students this year are English language learners, according to the academy. And its overall student body mirrors Lynn's population, as nearly 90 percent of its students are
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'It's really incredible to see the results that this school is having on low-income students,' the acting state school commissioner, Russell Johnston,
So what was the real reason for the fierce opposition? Lynn Mayor Jared Nicholson laid it on the table: money. If the KIPP Academy expansion went forward, he testified, Lynn Public Schools would lose $8 million in state aid over some unspecified number of years. That is because state funding
But there is much debate over just how much public districts actually 'lose' in these situations. They no longer have to educate that student, which means their costs theoretically would go down too. Plus, the state pays 'transitional aid' to districts over three years to help them adjust when students move to charters. In the first year, that reimbursement is 100 percent of the aid that has been redirected to the charter; it declines to 60 percent in the second year and ends with 40 percent in the third.
Nicholson argued that despite that reimbursement, the district would be hurt over time because it has fixed costs for personnel and capital projects. Charter school advocates counter that three years should be enough time for districts to adjust. They also note that if a public school student were to go to a parochial school or move to another town, the district would get nothing.
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Moreover, Lynn is actually gaining students because of immigration. So even if the KIPP Academy expanded, the district would almost certainly have still received more state aid in the coming years.
To be sure, public schools, from working-class Lynn to affluent Brookline, are facing severe financial stresses. Despite the infusion of education aid provided by the
Pandemic disruptions also hurt school districts in lasting ways. In Lynn, performance on standardized tests fell during the pandemic, as it did everywhere. Though state law sets strict caps on charter seats, it allows charters to expand when the local district falls into the lowest 10 percent in academic performance. This happened in Lynn, opening the door to the KIPP Academy's application to grow. Nicholson said in an interview that by next year the district could be doing well enough to prevent KIPP from applying again for new seats.
That seemed to be a winning argument with Tutwiler, who told the education board last month after his no vote: 'I cannot ignore the context in which we are making this decision. And it is a pandemic recovery context.'
But what Tutwiler did not mention was the possibility that even if Lynn's performance improves, KIPP Academy's waiting list might remain long — as it has for several years now. Indeed, according to the Massachusetts Charter Public School Association, charter enrollment in the Commonwealth hit an all-time high this year at more than 46,000 students — even though enrollment is capped in many towns. At the same time, enrollment in public schools has
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At last month's meeting, Tutwiler also voted against an uncontroversial expansion proposal from a Horace Mann Charter School in Boston, which passed despite his opposition, and another proposal from a high-performing math and science charter in Marlborough, even though it was for a mere 34-seat expansion. That one failed.
His votes surprised some board members and raised concerns among charter advocates. Tutwiler has asserted that neither he nor the governor are dogmatically anti-charter. But if that is the case, the governor would do well to make her views clearer to the public.
Beyond that gesture, the state and its more than 300 school districts should be having a more frank dialogue about containing costs and finding strategies to improve academic performance beyond spending more money. Many districts are facing the same problems; might there be statewide approaches to reducing the cost of busing students or educating new immigrants and students with learning disabilities?
They should also be asking hard questions about why more families are searching for nontraditional alternatives — private, parochial, charter, and home schooling — to traditional public schools.
So far, that discussion has too often 'othered' charter schools and their families, as Rhonda Barnes, executive director of the KIPP schools in Lynn and Boston, has described it. Indeed, Barnes felt she had to remind the board in February that her school
is
a public school and that her students
are
public school students too.
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The state's acting school commissioner seemed to hear her plea, even if others on the board did not. The thousands of families on charter school waiting lists are asking for 'more public school options for their children,' Johnston told the board. 'We need to listen to our families.'
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