From the e-mail newsletter of the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation:
While it doesn’t have quite the shock value of accusations of terrorist leanings, the battle over three proposed Massachusetts charter schools lacks little for controversy. Tuesday, the state board of education approved the new schools in a near-unanimous vote, despite an ugly public relations effort by opponents that included accusations that one of the schools, to be headed by an Eastern European immigrant, would feature a “Soviet-style” curriculum ... Parents also accused teachers in the affected districts of dragooning students into writing letters to the state board opposing the charters, using students to gather petition signatures, and threatening children that, if the charters were approved, public school band programs would be terminated. In at least one case, the effort may have backfired, as one board member said her decision to vote for a new grammar- and reading-focused charter school was confirmed by receiving misspelled and grammatically incorrect letters from high school students. “I don’t think it should be gone through with if it does get excepted Marlboro High School will lose money it doesn’t have,” one letter read. The battle continues, with three Massachusetts mayors pledging to sue in state court to block the schools from opening this fall.