Nobody is more aggravating than the educational mafia who wants to put the hit on charter schools. Led by legislators like Patricia Serpa, D-West Warwick, a retired schoolteacher; Gregg Amore, D-East Providence, a union teacher and former union honcho; Jeremiah O’Grady, D-Lincoln, who vacuumed up union campaign contributions after a bogus “study commission” which he ran; Bill O’Brien D-North Providence, a union teacher at a failing high school; and the fair-haired lackey Daniel McKiernan, they have the charter schools in the crosshairs. The Speaker of the House, Nicholas Mattiello, has also thrown a sop to his union buddies by stating, “I cannot justify having two systems, fighting for the same resources.” Like King Solomon of old, he opines that he will only ‘halve the baby” by allowing existing charters to continue but not allow for further charters.

So, if there is only to be one system, why is the successful one, i.e. charter schools, going to get its legs broken?  The overwhelming fact is that these schools are doing much better than their counterparts. In order to mitigate their success, the school districts make up lies about the enrollment and success of the charter schools.

A comprehensive report was issued in April 2014 and puts the lie to false claims. Here’s some data from that report:

In April 2014, some 22 public charter schools were up in running in Rhode Island. They served about 6000 students representing about 4.2 percent of the total public school enrollment. Of the approximate $769 million in state funding in FY 2013 about 7 percent was used to fund charter schools. Of the approximate $1.2 billion in local funding, 2 percent was used to fund charter schools so there is not, in fact, a disproportionate amount on money earmarked for charter schools.

Charter school enrollment  is strictly determined by lottery. Contrary to the claim that the schools cherry-pick their students, the charter schools actually have a higher percentage of black students in attendance than the state as a whole. Ditto for Hispanic students, economically disadvantaged students, and English learners. The number of children with disabilities was slightly lower (13 percent vs. 15 percent). While charter schools enroll children from around the state, 78 percent of charter students reside in Providence, Central Falls, Pawtucket and Woonsocket.

When compared with the typical performance of Rhode Island public schools, notwithstanding these demographics, all but one of the charter schools achieved average and above average reading proficiency. Latino students achieved the higher average proficiency on the reading NECAP as well as did African American students (except for grade 4 which matched the proficiency rate across all schools). Low income students also achieved typical and above average proficiency than their counterparts in the school system. Math scores were also higher for both Latin and African-American students.

So with at least 11 applications for each seat in a charter school why would anyone kill this success story? The biggest lie is that it drains money from the rest of the school district. It doesn’t take a genius to realize that if their charter school pupils were in the school system, remediation and special services now being offered to their counterparts would plump up the costs. Perhaps the exodus should be just the opposite, with these students moving over to more charter schools.

Time will tell if politics trumps student welfare. The public should be outraged by this special interest feint to put a stop to something that's working.

Arlene Violet is an attorney and former Rhode Island Attorney General.