Stephanie Mattrey and her husband Jack moved to Amherst on a whim, but when it came time to educate their daughter, the couple got serious. Could they provide her with the type of education she deserved — and one that they could afford?
The couple was living in Southern California while Mattrey earned her master’s degree in acupuncture. After having two daughters, they realized being 3,000 miles away from their family in Pennsylvania was simply not going to work.
At the suggestion of a friend, the family visited the Pioneer Valley and knew within an hour that it was where they wanted to raise their kids. They packed up and came to New England in 2012.
“We realized we had to come here. We saved up our money and trudged out here with no jobs,” Mattrey said. “We had a struggle period, but it was worth it.”
They were a young family struggling to find their footing. According to Mattrey, her husband worked stints at Yankee Candle and Dunkin’ Donuts to make ends meet before settling into a computer programming job. Last October, Mattrey opened an acupuncture practice in her home.
When it came time to enroll their oldest daughter Jada in kindergarten, Mattrey said she had faith in the public school system but was interested in other options. She researched private schools, but tuition rates — which can run from $10,000-$15,000 or more a year per child — were out of her price range.
During her search, she stumbled upon Hilltown Cooperative Charter Public School, a charter school in Easthampton. She put Jada on the waitlist.
Three weeks into her kindergarten career at Crocker Farm Elementary School, a spot at Hilltown opened up for Jada in September 2014. It turned out to be a perfect fit.
Jada, 7, who is entering second grade, can’t wait to get back to school. Mattrey said she has been so impressed by the school’s hands-on curriculum — which incorporates music, arts and a sense of community — that she plans to send her two younger daughters there as well.
For her family, the public charter school provided an option they would not have otherwise had.
“Charter schools are good for giving people options. Not every kid learns the same way, and charter schools give equal options to everyone,” Mattrey said.
With a November ballot initiative that will ask voters whether Massachusetts should allow up to 12 new charter schools to open in the state each year, many more choices could start cropping up.
And with 32,600 children on charter school wait lists statewide, it is clear that parents are interested.
The ballot question has generated strong feelings, and funding, on either side.
Public Charter Schools for MA, a pro-charter school group, already reserved $6.5 million in television advertisements for the fall, spokesman Jim Conroy said in July. On the other side, Massachusetts Teachers Association President Barbara Madeloni told the Gazette last month her organization has contributed $9 million to the campaign against lifting the cap.
Opinions differ on whether charter schools are really equal. Some argue that charter schools provide choice to a broad range of families, while others say they risk becoming a taxpayer-funded enclave for the elite.
Earlier this month, Northampton Public Schools released a survey of 78 households that account for 113 of the 200 Northampton children who attend charter schools. The survey found that found a disproportionate number of Northampton parents who send their children to area charter schools are affluent and well-educated.
The survey was conducted by Abacus Associates in conjunction with the Northampton superintendent’s office. It found that only 6 percent of the families surveyed have a household income of under $50,000 per year, while 43 percent have an income of $100,000 or more. College graduate is the lowest level of education among parents and 79 percent of the families have at least one parent with a graduate degree.
Charter school opponents seized on the survey as proof that charter schools are draining resources from traditional public schools simply to help families who want — and could potentially finance — a private school-level education.
In a letter to the Gazette that appeared in print Friday, Lisa G. Kent, of Amherst, said it is galling to her when affluent and intelligent charter school parents “fail to recognize the consequences of charter school funding.”
“They’re private schools on the public dime,” Kent wrote. “When a student leaves a public school, taking their state and local funding with them, the public school cannot just eliminate a class to balance its books. Public schools can’t use free market tools to compete. It’s a grossly uneven playing field.”
Kent, a partner with Greenfield law firm Esser Kent, P.C., won a case challenging New Jersey’s charter school funding formula in the late 1990s.
Charter school supporters counter that Northampton is an outlier, saying the survey findings don’t reflect the diversity of most charter schools in Hampshire and Franklin counties.
“Everybody is equal (at Hilltown), I don’t know anybody’s status. We all put in the same amount of work and it trickles down into the classroom. There’s this camaraderie,” Mattrey said during a Hilltown student gathering at her home.
According to state data, Hilltown has the smallest percentage of economically disadvantaged students of the four public charter schools in the region — 6.6 percent of Hilltown’s 211 students enrolled for the 2015-16 school year fell into that category.
Paula Yolles, of Northampton, has been a teacher at Hilltown since it opened in 1995. She said she’s taught children of all income levels over the past 20 years.
“I’ve taught all different types of children. It’s a public school open to everybody,” Yolles said. “It’s free for anybody. You don’t have to pay a cent. All kids are welcome.”
Yolles, who teaches second and third grade, said having the school in a rural area poses a challenge for families that may not be able to drive their children to school everyday.
“That’s where people feel like their kid can’t go there,” Yolles explained.
Using the PVTA bus system, if the family feels comfortable, or opting to carpool could make attending Hilltown more feasible, Yolles suggested.
The percentage of economically disadvantaged pupils at Hilltown is smaller than at Pioneer Valley Chinese Immersion in Hadley (17.5 percent), Pioneer Valley Performing Arts in South Hadley (15.6) and Four Rivers in Greenfield (25.8).
Statewide, public schools educate an average of 27.4 percent economically disadvantaged students. In Easthampton, where Hilltown is located, 25.2 percent of students in the public school district were economically disadvantaged in the 2015-16 academic year.
According to a July 2015 report from the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, a student is determined to be economically disadvantaged based on eligibility for one or more of the following state-administered programs: the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP); the Transitional Assistance for Families with Dependent Children (TAFDC); the Department of Children and Families’ (DCF) foster care program; and MassHealth (Medicaid). The metric replaces the “low-income” ranking used in years past.
Richard Alcorn, executive director of the Pioneer Valley Chinese Immersion School in Hadley, said the school provides an alternative curriculum and a unique mission that kids in the region could not otherwise explore.
The Pioneer Valley Chinese Immersion School actually had more economically disadvantaged students than its host town during the 2015-16 academic year. Of the 433 students enrolled at the Chinese Immersion school, 17.5 percent were economically disadvantaged. In Hadley, 13.2 percent of students were economically disadvantaged district-wide.
The Chinese language and culture-centered school pulls from some 40 districts in the Pioneer Valley, including Amherst, Pelham, Chesterfield, Goshen, Easthampton, Granby, Hadley, Greenfield, Leverett, Northampton, South Hadley, Southampton, Shutesbury and Westhampton, among others.
“There’s this notion that all the kids here are rich, and that’s nonsense. It’s a diverse community of kids, and the program supports diverse learners,” Alcorn said.
Four Rivers Public Charter School in Greenfield serves students from 25 towns in Hampshire and Franklin counties. Of the 217 students enrolled, more than a quarter, or 25.8 percent, are economically disadvantaged.
“Our families are not affluent,” Four Rivers Principal and Head of School Peter Garbus said in an email. “While the school and our board have not taken an official position, I support the ballot measure. I believe that all families should have some measure of choice among public schools, regardless of income.”
In an interview this week with the Gazette editorial board, Senate President Stan Rosenberg, D-Amherst, agreed the Pioneer Valley Chinese Immersion School is a unique option that could not exist in a single school district in the region. The Pioneer Valley Performing Arts Charter Public School in South Hadley provides a similar opportunity, he added.
Pioneer Valley Performing Arts Charter Public School in South Hadley reported 15.6 percent of its 403 enrolled students during the 2015-16 school year were economically disadvantaged, according to state data.
Rather than going to a charter school to avoid a failing school district, “children are leaving one good school for another good school,” Rosenberg said.
Rosenberg said he would like to see charter schools included in the state budget as a separate line item rather than the current system of pulling charter school funds from public school district budgets. He said the current system, which requires public school districts to send tuition with outgoing students headed to charter schools, pits charter schools and public schools against each other.
Alcorn cautioned against separating charter schools in the state budget. He worries charter shools could be more easily cut and defunded that way. As it stands, Alcorn said, all public schools are underfunded because of the state’s current formula.
Smith College professor and Hilltown parent Nick Howe, of Northampton, agreed that a charter school line item seems risky.
“It’s not fair to defund a school that has kids in it. It is dangerous to put it in the budget as a separate line item,” Howe said. “This doesn’t have to be about the existence of charter school. If it’s true, and access is not equal, there are things that should be done about that.”
According to Northampton Superintendent John Provost, “the question comes down to one of school finance.”
“The divisiveness of this ordeal is based on fact that we have an inadequate funding formula for public schools and the problems with the funding for charter schools further erodes the resources available for public schools.”
The state Foundation Budget Review Commission estimates public schools in Massachusetts are underfunded by $1 billion. According to Provost, superintendents believe the number is closer to $2 billion. The school district is further crippled, Provost said, when it sends $2.2 million in funding out the door in tuition payments for the 200 Northampton students whose families choose charter schools.
Caitlin Thomas, of Northampton, is the parent of two Hilltown students. Her younger son enrolled in a kindergarten spot at Hilltown in 2011 and her older son was offered a fourth grade spot the following year. Her older son would have to repeat the fourth grade to take the spot, which his teacher advised against doing.
But Thomas’ son took the Hilltown spot. He started school while his parents were at the height of their divorce. It was a transitional time that she feared would affect his school performance. But according to Thomas, her son did better than ever.
“It was the best thing for him,” Thomas said.
According to Thomas, the sense of community, parent involvement and self-expression at Hilltown has brought her son out of his shell and boosted his confidence.
“I’d gladly send my kids to a non-charter school if I knew they would get the same focus and attention,” Thomas said.
And according to Provost, Northampton Public Schools have heard such concerns loud and clear. Provost said the results of the Abacus Associates survey showed a desire for greater community within the schools. He said that has affected his thinking, and district schools are actively working to foster that sense of connection parents want.
In 2015, the city launched a “School Local” campaign to promote public schools, which Provost said he hopes to capture the spirit of moving forward. The schools will also bolster advisory sessions where students break off in small groups with a faculty member to communicate and build community. At Northampton High School, the meetings happen several times a month. At JFK Middle School, short advisory sessions occur several times a week, Provost said.
“We’re going to continue making sure parents and students feel they are truly welcome and truly heard,” Provost said.
Stephanie Murray can be reached at stephaniemur@umass.edu.