Massachusetts is in the middle of its most expensive ballot measure fight ever—over the expansion of charter schools. Dark money has poured in from outside the state pushing a yes vote on Question 2, which would dramatically increase the number of new charter schools allowed each year, while unions in the state and the national unions they’re affiliated with have had to spend millions fighting back. More than 200 local school committees and 30 mayors have opposed Question 2. Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren is opposed. So is Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders.
So what’s it all about?
Charter school advocates like to frame their position as being somehow about civil rights, but let’s put it this way: you’ve got the Walmart Waltons pouring millions into charter expansion vs. the NAACP and the Movement for Black Lives opposing it. Juan Cofield, president of the New England Area Conference of the NAACP, is a leader in the fight against Question 2. He writes that Massachusetts charter schools:
… don't serve students with serious special needs. They are not accountable to the local taxpayers who must pay for them. And many charter schools have been cited by the state for using hyper-disciplinary policies that target black and disabled students at shockingly disproportionate rates.
You won't hear these facts from the billionaire backers of Question 2, who have a long history of claiming charter schools will "save" poor students of color, in an obvious effort to appeal to white progressives. Yes, there are individual schools that are falling short, and we must invest in them. What we must not do is allow 2016 to go down in history as the year Massachusetts cemented into law a separate and inherently unequal school system.
If Question 2 passes, it will perpetuate de facto segregation by siphoning vital public education funds off to privately-run schools that only educate a select group of students.
When he talks about siphoning funds, he’s not kidding.