It's not something we have encountered.

Generally speaking, and not in all instances, those schools that have higher percentages of students receiving special education services are going to tend to do less well on the tests. It's the nature of an education disability that it makes it more difficult for you to learn in some respect or another.

We think that it's time for a moratorium on new charter schools so that we have an opportunity to take stock to see how those charter schools that have been in existence fare.

It's well intentioned, but we think it's misguided. If the state has additional funds available that would be used to offset this tax credit, then it ought to be used to fulfill its constitutional mandate to fund schools adequately.

I think that's a reflection of the state aid, but it's also a reflection of the growing concern over property taxes.

It would disproportionately benefit private schools, and we feel the first obligation is to public schools.

We don't think that arbitrary caps work well. The costs of the local tax burdens have risen because the largest part of the school budgets are paid by local taxes. The problem is not at the local level.

It's a time-consuming process. It would not be unusual to find most people do not want to do that indefinitely. It's also a process where the rewards are largely internal; school board members get an inordinate share of the blame when things don't go well and very little of the credit when things do go well.

They have become quite important.