EXPANDING METCO AND CLOSING ACHIEVEMENT GAPS by Katherine Apfelbaum and Ken Ardon Preface by Gerard Robinson White Paper No. 129 March 2015 Pioneer Institute for Public Policy Research Pioneer’s Mission Pioneer Institute is an independent, non-partisan, privately funded research organization that seeks to improve the quality of life in Massachusetts through civic discourse and intellectually rigorous, data-driven public policy solutions based on free market principles, individual liberty and responsibility, and the ideal of effective, limited and accountable government. This paper is a publication of the Center for School Reform, which seeks to increase the education options available to parents and students, drive system-wide reform, and ensure accountability in public education. The Center’s work builds on Pioneer’s legacy as a recognized leader in the charter public school movement, and as a champion of greater academic rigor in Massachusetts’ elementary and secondary schools. Current initiatives promote choice and competition, school-based management, and enhanced academic performance in public schools. The Center for Better Government seeks limited, accountable government by promoting competitive delivery of public services, elimination of unnecessary regulation, and a focus on core government functions. Current initiatives promote reform of how the state builds, manages, repairs and finances its transportation assets as well as public employee benefit reform. The Center for Economic Opportunity seeks to keep Massachusetts competitive by promoting a healthy business climate, transparent regulation, small business creation in urban areas and sound environmental and development policy. Current initiatives promote market reforms to increase the supply of affordable housing, reduce the cost of doing business, and revitalize urban areas. The Center for Health Care Solutions seeks to refocus the Massachusetts conversation about health care costs away from government-imposed interventions, toward market- based reforms. Current initiatives include driving public discourse on Medicaid; presenting a strong consumer perspective as the state considers a dramatic overhaul of the health care payment process; and supporting thoughtful tort reforms. Pioneer Institute is a tax-exempt 501(c)3 organization funded through the donations of individuals, foundations and businesses committed to the principles Pioneer espouses. To ensure its independence, Pioneer does not accept government grants. 2 Expanding METCO and Closing Achievement Gaps TABLE OF CONTENTS Executive Summary 5 Preface 6 Introduction 8 METCO 9 The Status Quo 11 Recommendations 30 Conclusion 31 About the Authors 35 Endnotes 36 3 Expanding METCO and Closing Achievement Gaps Executive Summary net cost to the state varies depending on many factors, including whether students come from School systems around the United States are Boston or Springfield and which district they heavily segregated by income and race. At the attend. same time, an achievement gap between white and nonwhite students persists despite many The financial impact of METCO also varies efforts to close it. Against this background, tremendously for local districts. In Boston we explore the history and successes of the program has no impact, Springfield loses the Metropolitan Council for Educational thousands of dollars of aid for each student Opportunity program, better known as in the program, and in the suburban districts METCO. that METCO students attend, each METCO student results in additional aid of between The paper begins by examining segregation in $5,000 and $17,000. The argument that the United States and in Massachusetts. While suburban school districts are subsidizing the schools became more racially balanced in the Boston and Springfield public school systems is 1970s, that trend has been reversed in more too simplistic; the more complex reality is that recent decades. In Massachusetts more than one some districts get substantial amounts of aid. quarter of African American students and similar numbers of Hispanic students attend heavily METCO provides an important opportunity segregated schools. Segregation may play a part for school choice to urban residents in in explaining the achievement gap, as minority Massachusetts. The program should include students in less segregated schools outperform better controls for accountability and their peers in more integrated systems. transparency both from DESE and METCO Inc. With those controls in place, the program Although segregation endures at very high levels could be expanded to serve thousands of in Massachusetts, METCO provides an example additional students at a relatively low cost. of a small but successful voluntary program Additionally, changes to the funding formula to reduce racial imbalances. The precursor to could make the financing more transparent and METCO began almost 50 years ago, and since stable, as well as provide an automatic adjustment then METCO has allowed a small number of for inflation. minority students from Boston and Springfield to attend suburban schools. Currently approximately 3,300 students participate each year. More research on the effectiveness of METCO is needed, but the limited information available indicates that METCO students perform well in their new schools. Parents certainly believe in METCO, as the programs in both Boston and Springfield currently have 10,000 students on waiting lists. Despite its popularity and apparent success, state funding for METCO has fallen during the past decade; a decline that becomes larger when adjusted for inflation. The total financial impact of the program is complicated by the way districts receive funding for METCO students. The 5 Pioneer Institute for Public Policy Research Preface Americans returned from Europe emboldened by their victory over fascism and ready to Massachusetts is an American epicenter for advance democracy at home, particularly in its the advancement of literacy. The founding of public schools. Massachusetts, again, was at the our nation’s first public school, Boston Latin in epicenter of change. 1635, and first institution of higher learning, Harvard College in 1636, are two examples of In 1965, Massachusetts enacted the Racial the commonwealth’s role in advancing literacy Imbalance Act to desegregate its public school in the New World. At the state level, founding system; and it is worth noting that Massachusetts father John Adams included in the Massachusetts had already passed a law 110 years earlier to Constitution of 1780 support for literature and outlaw segregation in its public schools. Black learning through its public schools; a first in a parents from the Dorchester and Roxbury maturing republic three years removed from an sections of Boston, however, had grown tired of official end to the American Revolution with the Massachusetts Department of Education and signing of the Treaty of Paris. In 1837 Horace Boston School Committee efforts to provide their Mann, America’s first secretary of a state board children with a quality education in a de facto of education, used his position to promote the public school system. Political petitions and court common school idea. Massachusetts remained a challenges had not worked. Even school boycotts leader in innovative ideas throughout the 20th in 1963 and 1964 did not produce needed century: be it through the education of girls changes. So parents founded “Operation Exodus” and women; support for first-generation college and raised money to pay to bus students into students; or through its historic 1993 Education under-enrolled white public schools in Boston. Reform Act that produced the nation-leading Some school principals resisted the effort, while best NAEP results between 2005 and 2013, and others voluntarily opened their doors. With the K-12 global competitiveness on the 2007 and passage of time, political and philanthropic allies 2013 TIMSS assessments. Not surprisingly, in interested in the academic and social mission of 2015, Massachusetts’ residents and students have Operation Exodus decided to join the parent- the highest college completion rates in the United led campaign. This effort led to the formation States. of the Metropolitan Council for Educational Opportunity (METCO) in 1966. There is a long tradition in Massachusetts of parents and communities advocating for After nearly 50 years, METCO, the nation’s public schooling. In 1642, for example, the second oldest voluntary inter-district public Massachusetts Bay Colony enacted the Parent choice program, is alive and well, while and Master Act to codify the role of adults in remaining true to its original mission: promoting literacy for children. Some historians fostering diversity and enhancing educational considered this act the earliest education opportunities. As with any public education policy in British North America. In the 1770s, program focusing on race and place, one must Worcester parents protested against a law that ask an all-important question: Does it work? required them to support a grammar school with According to co-authors Kate Apfelbaum and a Latin-only curriculum. Parents demanded Ken Ardon the answer is yes. Last year Boston classes be taught in English so that all children and Springfield sent approximately 3,300 could attend the school, not solely the college- Black, Latino, Asian, and white students to bound sons of wealthy families. In the 1840s, public schools located in 37 districts—a far Black Bostonians turned