KIPP Academy charter school’s request to nearly double in enrollment is wrong-headed in a few significant ways, and the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education should not grant it.
KIPP’s maximum enrollment is currently 1,586. The administration wants to expand to 2,947 — an additional 1,361 students and an 86-percent increase. Because Lynn Public Schools fell into the bottom 10 percent of districts in the state, based on the comparison of MCAS scores from the two years immediately after the pandemic, when the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) resumed the full accountability formula, KIPP’s eligibility for Chapter 70 state funds was allowed to increase from 9 to 18 percent.
In dollars and cents, that’s an increase from $30 million to $54 million — an 80-percent increase in funding diverted from Lynn Public Schools.
On the surface, a KIPP expansion may sound great — for KIPP. But it’s a significant hit for LPS. For every student that leaves, or bypasses, the public school system for the charter school, the district loses an amount of money commensurate with the cost of educating that student. Talk about a tilted playing field.
The first question one could rightly ask is how is the district supposed to climb out of the bottom 10 percent if it suffers such a major loss of resources?
It should go without saying that Mayor Jared C. Nicholson and School Superintendent Dr. Evonne S. Alvarez are fiercely opposed to this. Nicholson, the School Committee chair who was also on the committee before being elected mayor, feels KIPP’s request, and its rationale for it, seems “punitive.
“It’s been widely documented that Lynn, and cities like ours, were hit particularly hard by the (COVID-19) pandemic,” he said. “We are incredibly focused on doing everything we can to reverse it.”
KIPP justifies the request for additional seats by stressing its success in “high-quality instruction, character development, family engagement and college and career readiness.”
KIPP is not the only institution in the city whose students achieve academic success and get accepted to major colleges and universities. They abound at Classical, English and Lynn Vocational Technical Institute.
“KIPP,” says Nicholson “makes these comparisons to LPS when, in fact, KIPP does not currently serve school populations that reflect the diversity of LPS.”
For her part, Dr. Alvarez says it is unfair for the DESE to equate Lynn’s academic success with that of the whole state.
“(KIPP is) not serving students across the state. They’re serving Lynn,” she said “The profile of a student in Massachusetts is not the same as a student in Lynn,” noting the disproportionate number of English language learners, transfers from other districts, newcomers and special education students LPS serves.
Also, she said, “we provide services for all students. And we continue to support them when they don’t meet achievement standards, which is not necessarily true of students at the charter. Students are returned from the charter school throughout the year, and our records indicate they have difficulty or lack of systems to support students with disabilities.
“We need to draw accurate comparisons of student populations that consider eligibility entrance requirements, and student retention data. Otherwise, the charter school only provides the illusion of being a beacon of excellence that serves all.”
There are other considerations. Where are these extra students going to go? KIPP had a school built in the Highlands, and in a relatively short period of time expanded into the old J.B. Blood building to make room for its high school. Now, it wants a third bite of the apple that would cost the city another $24 million in state funding.
Please. At some point, the state has to say “no.” Emphatically. Resources are precious enough without one school devouring more than the lion’s share of them
