Lawmakers Propose to Stop School Choice Plan

State senators introduced a bill to the legislature Monday which would place a moratorium on the state's two-year-old school choice system.

Sponsored by State Sen. Arthur E. Chase (R-Worcester) the proposal, slated for a vote next year, would halt the current inter-district program until the legislature conducts a study of its progress to date.

The choice program has come under fire in recent weeks by the Carnegie Foundation, which in a nationwide study of school choice called Massachusetts' program "the most punitive in the nation."

The current program allows parents to send their children to any school in the state which has room to accept them, but it does not provide any funds for transportation.

Chase said the program isolates poor, minority students from those who can afford to commute to other cities.

"More affluent parents send their kids to the best communities," he said. "School choice just makes it worse."

But opponents of the moratorium say school choice ends that problem by giving poorer families a chance to send their children to better schools.

"It's a subversive measure," said Education Committee Chair Sen. Thomas F. Birmingham '72 (D-Chelsea) of Chase's proposal.

"People already exercise choice. They move to communities where the schools are good. This system denies choice to those who can't afford it," he said.

Birmingham has proposed and education reform bill of his own, which would increase the state sales tax by one percent. The revenues, which he estimates to be about $400 million, would be used for education reform.

But Birmingham says that "school choice without the reform bill is problematic," because without a financial boost, poorer schools could suffer.

Still, he says that things have changed since last year, when Brockton students transferred to Avon, causing Brockton to lose $933,563 in state funding. Now, under a new plan, the state reimbursed the city for $700,172.

"I think that [problem] was true two years ago, when some communities did enjoy windfalls. I think that has been greatly ameliorated," he said.

"There is an inordinate amount of attention spent on school choice. There are many more important issues in state education," he said.

Chase says that the new compensation laws, which give schools like Brockton High a partial reimbursement for the money it loses to Avon, are far too expensive, and still does not make significant reforms.

Chase has praise for Cambridge's system which allows parents to send their children to any school in the city. Each school receives nearly equal funding.

"There's a big difference," he said. "In Massachusetts, communities pay the largest portion of the costs. Within a district, it's fair."

Chase says Birmingham is his most vocal opponent on the Senate floor.

But he said yesterday that he expects Senate President William Bulger to be his primary force behind school choice.

Bulger has come under fire for his support of school choice without funding for transportation. Detractors say that the current program allows more affluent parents to leave neighborhood schools, leaving poor, minority students behind.