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星期三, 8月 17, 2016

Boston City Councilors Tito Jackson and Matt O'Malley Join Mayors, City Officials, Call Question 2 TV Ad “Misleading”

Boston City Councilors Tito Jackson and Matt O'Malley Join Mayors, City Officials, Call Question 2 TV Ad “Misleading”
BOSTON — In a letter to the Yes on Question 2 campaign, which seeks to drastically expand the number of charter schools in Massachusetts, eleven local elected officials, including Boston City Councilors Tito Jackson and Matt O'Malley, today criticized that campaign’s recently launched television advertisement, entitled “Best in the Country.” Mayors and city officials from across the state say the ad “undermines the ability of elected officials in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to engage the taxpayers in our communities in an honest and productive conversation about the future of public education in Massachusetts.”
Every time a new charter school opens, it takes funding away from the public schools in that school district. Last year, over $400 million in taxpayer money was diverted to charter schools statewide, with money withdrawn from 243 local school districts,1 but the Yes on Question 2 ad claims that Question 2 would “result in more funding for public education.”
“If this were true, local elected officials from across the state would be lining up to endorse this ballot question,” says the letter, signed by Easthampton Mayor Karen Cadieux, Brockton Mayor Bill Carpenter, Fitchburg Mayor Stephen Dinatale, Boston City Councilor Tito Jackson, New Bedford Mayor Jon Mitchell, Medford Mayor Stephanie Muccini Burke, Northampton Mayor David Narkewicz, Plymouth County Treasurer Tom O’Brien, Boston City Councilor Matt O’Malley, Worcester Mayor Joseph Petty, and Lawrence Mayor Dan Rivera. “Question 2 does not contain one single word about addition funding for education. Your false assertion undermines our ability to have honest conversations about financing the schools our families deserve.”
If passed, Question 2 would allow the state to approve 12 new charters schools a year, every year, forever, with no limit on how much money a single district could lose. This would nearly triple the number of charter schools in just ten years, and take away more than $1 billion a year from our local public schools. After twenty years, local public school districts would be losing nearly $4 billion a year to charter schools.2
“Question 2 threatens to take billions of dollars from our local public school districts over the next decade alone,” says the letter. “We request that you immediately cease airing this misleading ad, and commit to remaining honest about how charter schools affect Massachusetts public school district budgets over the course of this campaign.”
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Save Our Public Schools is a grassroots organization of Massachusetts families, parents, educators and students. We are committed to ensuring equal educational opportunity for every child; less testing and more learning; stopping the state from opening additional charter schools that will drain millions more from public education; increasing funding to provide high-quality public schools for all children; and protecting local control over schools. We are united in opposition to the proposed ballot initiative to lift the charter school cap in Massachusetts. Our public schools cannot afford to lose vital funding while we are seeing programs cut and activities reduced. Sign up for updates at saveourpublicschoolsma.com.

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