Letter to the Editor: Vote No on Question 2

To the editor:

A November 1 editorial in The Crimson urged students to vote in favor of Question 2, a ballot initiative which would allow the state of Massachusetts to approve 12 additional charter schools per year. While The Crimson rightly notes that “much more work is needed to make Massachusetts’ education system truly equitable,” Question 2 would devastate Massachusetts public schools, and citizens should vote it down next Tuesday.

As the editorial mentions, “opponents of Question 2 have focused mostly on their potential cost,” and it’s easy to see why. This year, charter schools will be granted more than $450 million in aid that would have gone to public schools, and estimates suggest that approving Question 2 could put public schools roughly $100 million further in the hole. That means less money for textbooks, teacher pay, and less support for special needs students. The editorial also mentions that additional charters would be placed in higher-need districts, but this would be a bug, not a feature: offering a small minority of students a better education while even further damaging underprivileged schools’ finances is not a solution.

Charter schools come with a litany of other concerns. For one, they are not accountable to voters through school board elections, a point left unaddressed by The Crimson’s editorial. The editorial board also ignores charter schools’ overreliance on disciplinary action: while charter schools comprise just 4 percent of Massachusetts public schools, they represent nearly 14 percent of schools with suspension and expulsion rates over 20 percent. Far from helping underprivileged students in Massachusetts, passage of Question 2 would strike a blow to public school funding and accountability, all while over-disciplining students. On November 8, vote no on Question 2.

Sincerely,
Henry S. Atkins

Henry S. Atkins ’20 serves as Question 2 Policy Captain for the Harvard College Democrats.