Kaufman did not return a phone message left at his Washington, D.C., office yesterday. Charter schools have existed in Massachusetts since 1995. There are now 42 in the state, plus the seven new programs that won charters this spring. The schools occupy a new middle ground between public and private. They are paid for almost entirely with public dollars, but are run by private groups or corporations and are not subject to the authority of local school committees.
Students always attend for free and are picked via a lottery system.
Charter schools are barred from imposing an entrance exam or any other objective selection process that would allow them to take only better students. As with public school kids, charter school enrollees are required to take and pass the state MCAS exam to get a high school diploma. Once open, the Framingham Community Charter School will hold about 300 students in the sixth, seventh and eighth grades.