Another miracle charter school turns out not to be: Boston Globe's love affair officially over
It’s time now for another installment of EduShyster’s favorite telenovela: “Nos Encanta Los Escuelos Charteros.” This long-running series features the Boston Globe in the role of love-besotted suitor...When we last tuned in, the Globe’s mad luv for local miracle school UP Academy, appeared to have hit a rough patch. EduShyster can now officially confirm that the Globe and UP Academy are done, splitsville, broken up.
The Globe went public about the split last week, airing UP’s dirty laundry all over the Metro section, complete with the kind of breaking-news sized font usually reserved for Whitey Bulger. In case you missed it, here’s the recap: by the time you factor in 20% annual student turnover AND the multiple categories of students shunted off to enclaves of non-excellence, it turns out that this former-public-school-turned-miracle-charter isn’t so miraculous after all. And that’s not all. The Globe acknowledged what EduShyster reported late last year, and teachers and community advocates have been proclaiming for months: that UP seems to be UP to the same tricks at another school, Marshall Elementary, which UP will begin miracle-izing next fall.
But the true tabloid take-a-way was the Globe’s recounting of a young student with behavioral problems being driven to a nearby public school by UP administrators and dropped off, still wearing her UP Academy uniform. Did you get that?
Still, inquiring minds what to know: why now? After all, as EduShyster and DOZENS of teachers can personally testify, the Globe has been in possession of all of this info (not to mention a few additional titillating tidbits) for months... Reader: it’s time to meet a new character in our edu-drama: El Alcalde, Boston’s Mayor Thomas Menino...just days before Christmas, the Mayor, who spent months off-stage in a hospital bed, suddenly arose, phoenix-like, to announce that he planned to file legislation that would finally bring to justice the achievement-hating arch villain, the Boston Teachers Union. The legislation would eliminate the cap on so-called in-district charter schools, like UP Academy, which is rapidly emerging as a mini-empire of innovation and excellence, hoovering up formerly public schools.
Now here is where things start to get really interesting...it might strike the more conspiracy-minded among us as a bit rich that Mr. Kinneavy (the mayor's aide) sits on the board of UP Academy, which stands to benefit directly and most profitably from the legislation. (UP keeps a cool 15% commission each year for miracle-izing the formerly public schools in its growing orbit). I believe that this is what is known as a conflicto de intereses...So if UP Academy and the Mayor are going steady, where does that leave the Boston Globe, you ask...?
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