Lynn parents to rally for charter school

LYNN – As parents from KIPP Academy Lynn and other area charter schools prepare to lobby legislatures to lift a statewide charter school cap, city leaders find themselves hoping that KIPP will rem-ain the first, and only charter to serve Lynn.No one is questioning the success of KIPP – students at the middle school have among the best MCAS scores in the state and are achieving high levels of academic success in every subject – but having a charter school in the city comes at a huge cost. For Lynn, that cost is nearly $5 million.”That is the issue with charters. I have been over to the KIPP Academy and you can’t dispute that they are educationally successful,” said Clancy. “But that money comes off the (school) budget.”Clancy said the city was hit with a $250,000 increase in charter school payments for fiscal year 2010, bringing the total the city will lose from Chapter 70 funding to $4.99 million – the same amount that administrators said they needed to balance the 2010 budget.While funding from the state remains level, costs have risen to create a $4 million-$5 million gap in the department budget that will likely lead to layoffs and cutbacks across the district.”If we had that $4.9 million, we would have no problems,” said Clancy.The city loses a portion of Chapter 70 education funding for every student that attends KIPP or other charters, such as the Marblehead Charter School, instead of a traditional public school.Charter schools are considered public and can accept anyone at no cost, receiving the per-pupil amounts taken from individual communities in the form of chapter 70 funding from the state.While the funding is available to the schools, many charters are in the same budget situation as public schools. KIPP relies heavily on fundraisers and private donations to continue operating out of a rented space in the Holy Family Church on Bessom Street.The appeal for parents is the unique structure of charter schools. Most, like KIPP, have longer school days, are more disciplined and are not required to follow state curriculum requirements.According to the Massachusetts Public Charter School Association, who organized the movement Wednesday, more than 24,000 children attend charters in Massachusetts, but more than 20,000 sit on waiting lists.The organization argues that caps have left little or no room for additional charters in several urban communities where the need and demand are high, including Boston, Lawrence, Chelsea, Fall River and Lowell.On a positive note for charter school lobbyists, President Barack Obama has urged states to lift all caps on charters and has made portions of education stimulus money contingent upon making progress on lifting caps.Over 500 parents from across the state are expected to converge on the state house Wednesday morning to lobby against a charter school cap that limits the amount of students in a community that can attend a charter school, something that has not only prevented new students from entering charters, but also dashed the hopes of some who would like to open new charters.Clancy, who supported the Marblehead charter during his tenure in the senate, said he has no problem with the charter school concept and subsequent success, but warns that the city is in no position to deal with an increase in students attending charters or new charters entering the city if the cap is lifted.”When I was in the legislature we dealt with the Marblehead Charter School and I supported it, but we paid for it,” he said. “Now more than ever with the budget the way it is, we can’t afford any sort of experimentation.”