Reading the tea leaves on new education secretary’s charter vote 

IN THE ENDLESS debate over charter schools, there is often a stark line dividing people into the pro-charter or anti-charter camp. Education Secretary Patrick Tutwiler insists he occupies different ground. 

“I’m in the kid camp,” he said on Tuesday, and who could argue with him as he folded his 6-foot-5-inch frame onto the floor to play with 4-year-old Alisha during a visit to the Horizons for Homeless Children preschool in Roxbury. 

All eyes were on Tutwiler last week as he cast his first vote on a charter school proposal as Gov. Maura Healey’s top education deputy. Tutwiler voted against authorizing a new Worcester charter school, though he was in the minority, as the state education board voted 7-4 to approve the new school. 

Tutwiler, a veteran public school educator who served as superintendent of the Lynn schools for four years, said his decision was based on a specific shortcoming of the proposal: its failure to show it would use a proven model for serving English language learners. The vote was driven by his “values of equity, access, and excellence,” Tutwiler said at the meeting. “My decision should not signal a position on future charter applications.”

But that hardly stopped education leaders from trying to do just that. 

“I hope it’s the turning of a corner,” said Lisa Guisbond, executive director of Citizens for Public Schools and a frequent charter school critic. She said it was heartening to see Tutwiler frame his decision with “a larger lens in terms of equity and inclusion for the students in Worcester.” 

Max Page, president of the Massachusetts Teachers Association, which has aggressively fought against charter schools, which are publicly funded but independently run, usually with non-unionized teachers, also welcomed the new secretary’s vote. “It was a good sign that he is not going to be a rubber stamp for charter schools,” said Page. “He is a thoughtful and insightful person, and read the application and saw the shortcomings of the proposal and voted no.” 

Charter schools have been a polarizing issue ever since their introduction as part of the 1993 Education Reform Act. Proponents hail the innovation and choice they can bring, while critics say they divert money from district school systems and don’t enroll students with the greatest needs. 

The Baker administration was solidly pro-charter, and teachers unions and other critics are hoping the new Democratic administration will bring a more skeptical eye to charter proposals. 

“We knew all the time where Secretary Peyser stood,” said Beth Kontos, president of the American Federation of Teachers Massachusetts, referring to Baker’s education secretary, Jim Peyser. “He very much was invested in charter schools, invested in their spread and continuation.” 

Tutwiler said he has no preconceived belief in the superiority of district or charter schools. “I am agnostic when it comes to governance models,” Tutwiler said following his tour of the Roxbury center for homeless children. “I love good schools. And I would say there are a number of charter schools that have done really well in supporting kids and realizing their dreams.” 

He cited one, in particular, when casting his vote last week: KIPP Academy, which runs a  K-12 charter school program in Lynn, where Tutwiler was district superintendent. “We partnered around the idea that we can get more done collaborating than we can by fighting with one another,” Tutwiler said. 

“We hit it off early,” said Nikki Barnes, executive director of KIPP Massachusetts, which runs charter schools in Lynn and Boston. “We cared about kids and determined that we were going to work together.” Barnes said she and Tutwiler, both African-American educators, often referenced a James Baldwin quote, whose message is, “all of the children are all of ours.” 

Under their leadership, KIPP and the Lynn schools are collaborating on a pilot program, Pursuing Pathways, that draws 10 students from each sector and has staff from both the charter school and district sharing best practices as they jointly counsel students on college and career readiness goals. 

Tim Nicolette, executive director of the Massachusetts Charter Public School Association, said his group has had “positive conversations” with Tutwiler since he became secretary, and worked well with him when he was superintendent in Lynn. “I take him at his word,” Nicolette said of Tutwiler’s explanation that he had specific reservations about the Worcester charter school proposal. 

Tutwiler is scheduled to speak next month at a biannual gathering of Massachusetts charter school leaders convened by Nicolette’s organization. 

Tutwiler’s stance is similar to that of Education Commissioner Jeff Riley, who has tried to distance himself from the charter wars by saying he is committed to good schools, regardless of their governing structure. 

The Worcester application was the first proposal for a new charter school that Riley recommended and brought to a vote in the five years he’s been in office. On this one at least, the two education leaders who claim allegiance to the “kid camp” landed in different cabins.