Innovation Partnership Zones

Proposal would disempower educators and school committees

While euphemisms about "partnership," "empowerment" and "innovation" are used, this is a state takeover bill, pure and simple.

Senator Eric Lesser of Longmeadow and Representative Alice Peisch of Wellesley have filed bills for the 2017-18 legislative session proposing to create so-called “Innovation Partnership Zones.” The legislation, supported by Governor Charlie Baker, is a clear attempt to subvert the will of the voters who defeated Question 2 last year by allowing the commissioner of education to create charter-like “zones” of two or more schools, stripping democratically elected school committees of all authority over these schools, and gutting local collective bargaining agreements. We are calling them State Takeover Zones.

Under both bills, the commissioner could create an IPZ of an unlimited number of schools as long as there is at least one Level 4 or Level 5 school in the district. The state could also pressure a district to create a zone as long as there is at least one school in the bottom 20 percent. While euphemisms about “partnership,” “empowerment” and “innovation” are used, this is a state takeover bill, pure and simple.