MA: Charter School Act (Statute)

[A-Bob]

Charter School Act

Section 1

The Mideast Region hereby eliminates the cap on the creation and maintenance of Charter Schools. The elimination of this cap shall not relieve the Mideast Region from its responsibility to audit any Charter School or hold such institutions to statewide standards.

Section 2

This act shall take effect immediately.

Sponsor- Governor tmth

[Jayhawker]

I ask the Assembly to consider passing this piece of legislation. Charters Schools have a proven record of being successful forms of education, and in order to provide more opportunities to parents and students, we must not limit the amount of Charter Schools being developed in the Mideast Region.

[A-Bob]

The charter schools in my area literally suck and have much lower test scores than our public schools, but I will support the bill. I don't see any reason to withhold schools from starting up that can really change a community. And parents usually don't want to send their kids to a worse school, so any bad charter schools will die out anyway (the one I live next to is good with social problems/ disabilities so you have a lot of families coming from far away) but I'm not sure how the other charter schools in my area survive. There's also a christian private school with sub par test scores, though that is faith based.

[A-Bob]

Since debate has ended for over 48 hours, I will bring the bill to a vote.

The vote will last 48 hours or until every Assemblymember has voted, please vote Aye, Nay, or Abstain.

[A-Bob]

Aye

[CathKhan]

Aye.

[Junkie]

I must say I find this vote very hard.  From my personal experience, the public school system is clearly broken.  There are some charter schools that are excellent and are providing opportunities that children would not have.  On the other hand, I have seen many charter schools that are horrible, and a few that are fronts for drug dealers.  But on the whole, if done right, these schools could provide an answer that is sorely needed.

What sells me on this statute is the monitoring of the charter schools through government regulation and audits.  Quite frankly, I should have spoken up earlier, but I somehow missed this thread.  After giving it some thought, I support this statute and will consider a later statute formalizing and strengthing regulation of these schools.

Thus I vote:

Aye

[RIP Robert H Bork]

I see no reason to oppose this.

Aye

[A-Bob]

Voting has closed and will move to the Governor's desk for a signature or veto. The bill has passed.

Aye-4
Nay-0
Abstain-0

Not Voting- Inks

[Inks.LWC Supports Chuck Hagel]

For the record, AYE.