NORTHAMPTON — A disproportionate number of Northampton parents who send their children to area charter schools are affluent and well-educated, according to a recent survey.
The findings come during a heated debate over whether Massachusetts residents should vote in November to lift the state cap on charter schools. The Massachusetts Charter Public School Association has pushed the issue, which calls for the addition of 12 more charter schools per year anywhere in the state. But opponents say more charters would starve public schools of taxpayer dollars.
John Provost, superintendent of Northampton Public Schools, said the survey raises questions about equity that voters should take into consideration.
Results of the survey, which was conducted by the Abacus Associates in conjunction with the superintendent’s office, found that only 6 percent of families surveyed have a household income of under $50,000 per year while 43 percent have an income of $100,000 or more.
Additionally, of the 78 households with 113 children polled, college graduate is the lowest level of education among parents, and 79 percent of the families contain at least one parent with a graduate degree.
Provost found the results surprising, he said. Although the survey could not be completed for parents of public school children, he said the charter school demographic it revealed was not representative of Northampton families as a whole, or, to the best of his knowledge, of families in Northampton Public Schools.
“I understand the charter school movement as intending to provide high-quality options for students who are trapped in low-performing districts because of family income,” Provost said.
“That’s not what we’re finding is happening with the families in the charter schools serving our area, or at least the families from Northampton who are choosing our charter schools.”
In the 2015-16 school year, the city was charged $2,359,214 for charter school students, and received $272,097 under the charter reimbursement formula, bringing the net cost to $2,087,117. This money funds charter school education for 200 students — the number of Northampton children who attend one of the four charters, Provost said.
The four charter schools addressed in the survey are Hilltown Cooperative Charter Public School in Easthampton, Pioneer Valley Chinese Immersion Charter School in Hadley, Pioneer Valley Performing Arts Charter Public School in South Hadley and Four Rivers Charter Public School in Greenfield.
Mark Watts, president of Abacus Associates, said Northampton Public Schools asked him to collect the data pro bono. The results make sense to a large degree, he said, because in order for a family to drive their child to an out-of-town charter school, they need to have money and transportation resources to do so. Lower-income families may not have those resources.
“The process of getting the kid to a charter school involves family engagement not all families have,” Watts said.
However, Dominic Slowey, spokesman for the Massachusetts Charter Public School Association, said that, taking the survey at face value, he’d say Northampton is an outlier compared to other statewide data he’s seen.
A February 2016 report done by the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education found that 35.46 percent of students at charter schools in the state were considered economically disadvantaged in the 2015-16 school year, compared to 27.37 percent statewide.
“By and large, the charters attract more low-income, more black and brown children than the statewide average,” Slowey said.
Other questions in the Northampton survey polled parents on their reasons for enrolling their children in charter schools. Popular responses were that the charters offered curriculum that was uniquely suited for the child, that class sizes were small and personable and that the schools encouraged parent volunteering.
But Barbara Madeloni, president of the Massachusetts Teachers Association, said the Northampton data is evidence that public schools need more funding, which would allow every child opportunities for varied curriculum and intimate learning environments rather than a select few.
“It’s important data to get out there because, like I said, it exposes that people are accessing a private education using public dollars,” Madeloni said. “While I understand that parents want the best for their child, every child should be able to have that opportunity.”