Citizens for Public Schools responded to State Auditor Suzanne Bump’s report on charter schools with this statement by CPS Executive Director Lisa Guisbond:
“I applaud the state auditor for scrutinizing charter school practices and, in the process, uncovering serious flaws in the way the state holds these schools accountable. The auditor’s report reveals that we still don’t know how many students are waiting to get seats in charter schools. The charter schools make extravagant claims, which the auditor’s report says are inflated. We will not know the truth until the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education holds them accountable for accurate data.
Unfortunately, the auditor did not examine a larger problem, which is that charter schools are selective — both as to who is admitted and who is allowed to stay. The question for Massachusetts is, do we want a dual education system, one selective and one educating all students?
Nevertheless, this report is an important first step and signals that there should be no expansion of charters at least until we can be assured of accurate and transparent information about charter schools in the Commonwealth.”
