An unprecedented plan by Boston University to run Chelsea's troubled schools deprives parents of a say in their children's education, the state education commissioner and teachers unions charged Thursday. Education Commissioner Harold Raynolds said the Chelsea School Committee was abdicating its responsibility to run the community's schools and depriving Chelsea residents of a role. ``This is a sort of modern-day tragedy,'' Reynolds said. The private university has proposed taking over the management and operation of Chelsea's schools for 10 years. Schools in the industrial city north of Boston have among the lowest test scores and highest dropout rates in the state. The School Committee is the local school board in Chelsea and is expected to endorse the takeover. The Massachusetts Federation of Teachers opposes the plan. ``The citizens ought to control their schools, the citizens ought to determine the climate in which their children learn,'' said Annemarie DuBois, union director. ``It is not necesssary to take the public out of public education.'' The plan calls for BU to raise money from private sources and use students and faculty from its School of Education. Other elements in the proposal raised hackles, including the university's request for an exemption from state open-meeting and open-records laws and freedom from liability if students, parents or others sue it. The state wants those elements revised, and an amended plan was due Thursday. But it did not materialize. Peter Greer, dean of the School of Education, and university attorney Michael Rosen said those concerns were being worked out and a revised plan would be ready next month. Once the Chelsea School Committee agrees to the contract, it still requires the Legislature's approval. Greer said that at a public meeting last month in Chelsea, 38 out of 44 people spoke in favor of the plan. ``The people of Chelsea have said `Please do this,''' he said. Teachers unions have questioned the constitutionality of the plan but failed several weeks ago to persuade a judge to bar the contract from going forward. About 275 Chelsea teachers are represented by the 650,000-member American Federation of Teachers, which also opposes the plan. ``We delude ourselves into thinking this is a model or experiment that could be duplicated,'' said Bella Rosenberg, assistant to national AFT president Albert Shanker. This is ``a small school district that is about to become a colony of a very large university,'' Ms. Rosenberg said.
