Barely two months after his top education advisor, James A. Peyser, left to
join a venture capital group specializing in charter schools, Gov. Romney has
proposed rewriting state law to permit chains of charter schools in
Massachusetts.
New Schools Venture Fund, with Peyser as a new partner, has been most
active in California. Peyser is promoting networks of so-called Charter
Management Organizations in the East.
One of the CMOs that New Schools has backed is the San Diego-based High
Tech High. They are already involved in trying to launch a new charter HS in
Cambridge.
Meanwhile, Peyser remains chairman of the state Board of Education which
will be voting this month on the Cambridge application, along with four other
proposals for commonwealth charter schools.
Peyser's tenure has been shrouded by conflicts of interest since he became
board chair in 1999. He had been executive director of the conservative
Pioneer Institute, a leading voice for privatization and charter schools in
the Commonwealth.
However, his latest conflict, as a charter-school-promoting venture
capitalist - while remaining as chair of the public board that approves
applications for new charters and oversees existing charter schools - may be
the most egregious.
It's time for citizens, educators, and legislators to call for Peyser to
step down.
