Mass. Education Chief Recommends 4 Charter Schools

Massachusetts Education Commissioner Mitchell Chester is recommending the state education board approve four new charter schools in Boston, Holyoke, Lowell and Springfield.

The recommendations including three Commonwealth charter schools and one Horace Mann charter school.

Commonwealth charter schools operate independently of the local school district while Horace Mann charter schools cooperate with the school district and require approval by the local school committee.

Chester also rejected two charter applications: one in Somerville, and another in Springfield.

Sixteen charter schools were approved last year after the Patrick administration raised the cap on the schools.

There are now 79 charter schools across Massachusetts.

The four recommended charter schools are: the Baystate Academy Charter School in Springfield; the Collegiate Charter School of Lowell; the Paulo Freire Social Justice Charter School in Holyoke; and the Dudley Street Neighborhood School in Boston.

If approved by the board later this month, two of the new charter schools would open this fall, with the other two opening next year.

With reporting by The Associated Press and the WBUR Newsroom