Story Published:
Nov 18, 2009 at 2:41 PM EDT
Story Updated:
Nov 18, 2009 at 2:41 PM EDT
BOSTON (AP) - Gov. Deval Patrick urged the Massachusetts
Legislature on Wednesday to suspend its rules and stay in session
as long as needed to pass an education-overhaul bill, but the House
speaker balked.
The Senate passed the bill Tuesday evening, sending it to the
House, but legislative sessions for the year were scheduled to end
Wednesday.
Patrick highlighted his plea by visiting a charter school just
yards from the Winthrop hometown of House Speaker Robert DeLeo. He told reporters he wanted the House to pass the bill Wednesday, and
he said "it is a little frustrating" that final action butted up
against the deadline.
He also conceded he was "not hopeful" that DeLeo and House
members would heed his appeal but was trying to use the bully
pulpit of his office to draw attention to it.
"I'm frustrated by that, but I continue to press the point,"
he said.
About the same time, DeLeo sent a letter to his members, saying
they would not act on the education bill or another piece of
legislation regarding public access to criminal records.
"I believe it would be a disservice to the members of the House
and, most importantly, to the students and families of the
commonwealth to attempt to consider this bill at today's session,"
DeLeo said of the education bill. He took a similar view of the
criminal-records bill.
Yet DeLeo pledged to meet a Jan. 19 deadline so the state can
apply for extra funding under the Obama administration's "Race to
the Top" program, an initiative to give grants to states willing
to undertake a top-to-bottom overhaul of their schools.
He said that approach "will be of far greater benefit to the
Bay State than if we were to attempt to unnecessarily rush the bill
through for the sake of political expediency."
Patrick bristled at the timetable.
"The problem is we've been waiting for more than a decade," he
said. "All apart from Race to the Top money, we're talking about
our kids, who've been in this achievement gap for well nigh too
long."
The bill passed the Senate on a 28-11 vote before heading to the
House.
One of the most prominent features in legislation is the easing
of a cap on charter schools, particularly in the state's
worst-performing districts.
Sen. Robert O'Leary, co-chairman of the Joint Education
Committee, said the bill would also create new tools to help the
state lift persistently underperforming schools and allow the
creation of so-called "innovation schools" in local districts.
Texts of the final bill, and its many amendments, were not
immediately available for review.
Teachers unions, which typically oppose the creation of charter
schools, lobbied against the bill and are now concentrating their
attention on the House.
Patrick said that the Massachusetts Teachers Association has
been consulted throughout the bill's development and that its
concerns are reflected in many amendments.
"Nobody gets 100 percent in any legislation, but I think the
bill strikes the right balance between respecting collective
bargaining rights and focusing on where the focus out to be, which
is our children," the governor said.
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