PITTSFIELD, Mass. — The City Council is divided on whether it should or should not take a stance on the ballot question regarding charter schools.

 

In November voters will be asked to lift the cap on the number of charter schools in the state should be raised, allowing a dozen more schools to open.

 

City Councilors Kathleen Amuso, John Krol, and Peter White asked the City Council to join other communities in the state to pass a resolution calling for a no vote on the ballot question.

 

For those three, the issue of more charter schools is impactful to the city because of the funding mechanisms. They believe that more charter schools will pull more funding from the public school system they are asked to fund every year.

 

"It is going to have a reflection if there are more charter schools on how we run our city," Amuso said.

 

However, others on the council, including Donna Todd Rivers, Christopher Connell and Melissa Mazzeo, think the question isn't in the council's bailiwick. Ultimately, the City Council opted to table the resolution.

 

"This is not legislation. It is an opinion. We are a legislative body," River said.

 

Rivers said the question is going to the ballot box where voters will be making the decision. She said councilors can get involved in the political process, advocate on behalf of a viewpoint, and endorse proposals on their own. But, as a legislative body, she doesn't feel it is the council's role to take opinionated stances on such a question. 

 

Mazzeo asked, "are we overstepping our bounds and telling the public how they should vote on something?"

 

Krol, however, said the resolution is certainly in the council's realm of operations because the question will directly impact the budgets it will have to approve in the future. 

 

"It is ultimately a system that has major, major flaws. In my estimation, I think we have no choice but to vote no on question 2," Krol said.

 

Joining in those statements were Pittsfield School Committee Chairwoman Katherine Yon, United Educators of Pittsfield President Brendan Sheran, and Sheila Irvin. 

 

"This funding mechanism hurts school districts," Irvin said, adding that the city of Pittsfield lost some $2 million in charter school tuition funding last year.

 

Sheran said the state has been underfunding the reimbursements for multiple years in a row, including shorting it by $47 million last year. Further, he said the question is quickly becoming one of the most expensive because of what he called "dark money" coming in from out of state to support a yes vote on the question. That  "dark" campaign funding isn't able to be tracked to who is donating it and proponents are looking at spending somewhere around $18 million on it. Meanwhile, opponents will be spending some $13 million urging a no vote. 

 

Yon characterized the charter school funding formula as "taxation without representation." She said the charter schools are funded by taxpayer money but taxpayers have no representation in the governance of the school. 

 

"There really is no representation from parents in any real way. There is no representation from taxpayers in a real way," Krol said.

 

However, Berkshire Arts and Technology Charter Public School student Andrew Kerwood said the money doesn't belong the school district, it belongs to the student. He didn't feel the Pittsfield Public School system was the right environment for him and he opted to go to BArT. There he's found a track record of academic achievement with 100 percent of BArT 10th-graders scoring proficient or above on standardized testing and students going off to colleges.

 

"BART students, in particular, have shown great success," Kerwood said. 

 

He said the money going for the city students for BArT represents just 3 percent of the school's budget and provides a quality education for the students. He said the state's philosophy is to have the money follow the student – not specifically to one particular district. 

 

"It is not that fair to blame charter schools for financial troubles the district is facing," Kerwood said.

 

Ward 2 Councilor Kevin Morandi agreed that expanding educational opportunities is for the better by providing choices to parents. 

 

"Education is a personal choice. It is what your child needs and the parents should be making that decision," Morandi said. 

 

Former School Committee member Terry Kinnas urged the council not to adopt the resolution, and to vote in favor of raising the cap. He too cited the success of BArT students academically while Pittsfield has been failing to hit performance targets on standardized tests. 

 

Others, however, said those comparisons aren't applicable because the Pittsfield schools have more special education needs, more unfunded mandates from the state, and a responsibility to educate all students. 

 

"The public schools face significantly more challenges than the charter schools," Amuso said. 

 

White said expanding the system now is not the right time until the funding formula is crafted in a better way as to not hurt the sending district as much. 

 

"If we are going to have two separate systems in Massachusetts for education, we need to make sure they are equal," White said.