Gov. Patrick signs landmark education bill

Gov. Deval Patrick today signed a landmark education bill that gives state and local education officials new tools to turn around low-performing schools and improve student achievement.

The law also expands the reach of charter schools, but leaves largely unaddressed longstanding problems with how charter schools are funded.

The new education law reflects weeks of hard work by the chairs of the Joint Committee on Education – Rep. Marty Walz of Boston and Sen. Robert O’Leary of Cape Cod – as well as compromises on a series of contentious issues mainly related to union powers and charter schools that have raged both publicly and behind the scenes since last summer. (The discussions began when the governor filed his pair of education bills, on “Readiness Schools” and charter schools and Boston Mayor Thomas Menino filed his “innovation schools” legislation.)

The Senate approved its version of an education bill in November. The House approved a version on Jan. 7, and a compromise plan was hammered out by a House-Senate conference committee. The education bill passed by a 97-47 vote in the House and 23-12 in the Senate on Jan. 14.

The new law is expected to strengthen the state’s application for as much as $250 million in temporary federal “Race to the Top” education grants. The expansion of charter schools is expected to halt the campaign for a 2010 state ballot question that would lift charter school caps.

The new law allows the state’s K-12 education commissioner to designate a limited number of schools and school districts as under-performing or chronically under-performing. These districts would be the focus of aggressive turn-around efforts initiated by the commissioner or by local school officials to rapidly improve student learning and achievement. The new powers include quicker dismissal of failing teachers and other school personnel and a limited ability to change collective bargaining contracts.

The education law also authorizes the establishment of “innovation schools” that would serve as a type of in-district charter school with more autonomy and flexibility than other schools in the district.

The new law raises the cap on public school revenue that can be taken away from low-performing public school districts by the state and paid to a charter school as tuition. It also makes it easier in some circumstances to create in-district charter schools.

The law keeps the two different types of charter schools: private “commonwealth” charter schools and public in-district “Horace Mann” charter schools. The total number of charter schools would remain capped at 120, including not more than 48 Horace Mann schools and 72 commonwealth charter schools, although the law provides for exemptions from the cap, including the charters in low-performing districts.

The cap on the amount of local school revenues – measured as actual “net school spending” in school finance law – taken by the state to pay charter school tuition remains at 9 percent of school spending, except in districts with low student achievement. For districts with student performance in the lowest 10 percent of districts statewide, the cap increases to 18 percent of school spending. This cap is being phased in over a seven-year period, beginning at 12 percent in fiscal 2011.

The law requires the education board to limit charters in districts with an increased spending cap to schools that have a track record of success with students at risk of low performance. New charter schools in this category are required to have a recruitment and retention plan designed to ensure that enrollment is at least comparable to the school from which students are drawn.

The law requires that not less than two of any charter schools approved in a fiscal year be from low-performing districts. The law also limits the number that may be approved in any high-performing school district to a single regional charter school.

The law defines low-performing school districts as those where the education board has determined that local student performance data is in the lowest 10 percent of all statewide student performance scores over the prior two years.

The law leaves in place the current system for calculating the charter school tuition amount and deducting local school revenues to pay the tuition amount to the charter school. The law adjusts the schedule for reimbursing municipalities and school districts for lost revenue by cutting reimbursements in the second and third years – now 60 and 40 percent – to 25 percent, while extending this rate through the sixth year. The first-year reimbursement remains at 100 percent of any increase in revenue deductions.

Charter schools must comply with state special education law, but the cost of any private day or residential placement for a charter school student must be paid by the local school district. If the charter school convenes an education team meeting for a student, local school officials must be given five days notice and must be allowed to participate in the meeting.

The law requires that Horace Mann charter schools be approved by the local school committee and collective bargaining agent, except if the school is a conversion of an existing school. This requirement, however, does not apply to the next 14 new Horace Mann charter schools. In the case of a conversion, a memorandum of understanding agreement on any contract waivers must be approved by a majority vote of the school faculty.

For the 14 new Horace Mann charter schools, the local school committee and union are required to reach agreement on a memorandum of understanding on contract waivers, after the education board grants the charter. If agreement is not reached before the school opens, the school may operate under the terms of the charter until an agreement is reached. Four of these new schools are set aside for the Boston public school system.

The state’s education board is the granting authority for all charters and has the final word on local proposals for Horace Mann charters.

The law revises the state-level process for evaluating and approving charter schools, requiring that all materials in support of or opposition to an application be provided to the applicant and to affected school districts before any vote by the education board on a commonwealth charter school application.

• Download the Legislature’s summary of the education reform law (348K PDF)