State plays politics over charters

[unhappycamper]

http://www.bostonherald.com/opinion/op_ed/2016/03/state_plays_politics_over_charters

Rejects school plan, ignoring chain’s proven record

State plays politics over charters
Charlie Chieppo, Jamie Gass Tuesday, March 22, 2016

With debate raging over raising the charter school cap, the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education approved two new charters last month. But the bigger developments surround a school that wasn’t approved and a now-tainted state charter authorization process.

Among the rejected proposals was one for a Fitchburg school whose founding group planned to affiliate with Sabis, a for-profit education management company.

A 2010 state law raised the cap on charter schools in low-performing school districts, but required any new schools in excess of the earlier cap to be operated by “proven providers.” It would be hard to find a provider more proven than Sabis, yet the rejection of the proposed school in Fitchburg was not an outlier: Between 2008 and 2016, six of the seven Sabis-affiliated charter school proposals have been rejected.

Recent Pioneer Institute case studies of two western Massachusetts schools that are managed by Sabis show there is much to like about the company’s work.