Mount Pleasant School takeover needed
Last spring the Massachusetts Board of Education properly refused to renew the charter of the Lynn Community Charter School because it wasn't doing as well as it had promised in its original charter agreement. Parents protested vehemently, fearing that the schools to which their children would have to return would be even worse.
The most recent MCAS scores confirm the fears of those parents in Lynn. Seven Lynn elementary schools had lower fourth-grade MCAS scores than the Lynn Community Charter School's 224; the worst being the Harrington School with 216. Those numbers suggest there is really not a very big difference until you remember that each pupil is awarded 200 for taking the test. Take away the 200 and a score of 24 looks a lot better than one of 16.
Across Massachusetts there were 135 elementary schools that had lower MCAS scores than Lynn Community Charter. Eight of these were in New Bedford: Mount Pleasant, Hayden McFadden, Gomes, Lincoln, Devalles, Phillips Avenue, Dunbar and Rodman. Mount Pleasant was close to the bottom of all 1042 elementary schools in the state, nudged out only by six Boston inner city schools. It was the fourth straight year Mount Pleasant's MCAS performance has been close to the bottom.
Do we have the courage to get rid of the double standard and close down the worst-performing schools? District schools should be held to the same standards of accountability that were applied to the Lynn Community Charter School.
Clearly, there is a double standard at work here. The Lynn Community Charter gets closed down and poorer scoring schools like Mount Pleasant continue producing horrible results year after year. The 386 students in Mount Pleasant certainly aren't dumb; they are not getting the quality education that all of our children deserve.
Two years ago Save A School Foundation offered to take over Mount Pleasant School, convert it to a Commonwealth charter school, and promised that within five years its MCAS scores would be above the average for all New Bedford elementary schools. The foundation offered to give New Bedford $1 million if it failed to deliver on the promise. The offer was dead on arrival, but it proved that one group was willing to put its money where its mouth was.
The double standard says let's keep throwing money at the problems of low-performing schools. But the time has come to declare such schools bankrupt, put each out for proposals and seek operators who can do better for the children and families they serve.
Students at Mount Pleasant and the seven other New Bedford schools listed above can't afford to wait for improvement. Those who leave fourth grade with poor reading and math skills will have a very hard time ever making it to college.
We need nurses, electricians, teachers and computer programmers. Students in these failing schools will have a mighty hard time competing for these positions. Shame on us for not providing these children with the opportunity they deserve.
Since politics too often results in the needs of the education bureaucracy and teachers unions being put ahead of the students, schools like Mount Pleasant represent the only option for too many children. Being in a school like Mount Pleasant is the 21st century equivalent of involuntary servitude.
Government schools are a monopoly. Like most monopolies, they have in too many cases grown soft and fat. They have not been held accountable for results.
Competition provides better goods and services in the private market. Why not let it work for the poor children in Mount Pleasant School. And do it NOW. Not next year, after we have sunk even more resources into the same failed system. Shame on us if we condemn yet another year's worth of students to involuntary servitude.
By Lovett C. "Pete" Peters
Mr. Peters of Newton is the founding chairman of the Pioneer Institute, a Boston think tank.
This story appeared on Page A12 of The Standard-Times on January 9, 2003.
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