The state education commissioner will ask the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education to approve expansion plans for two charter schools in Dorchester and Mattapan next week. Neighborhood House Charter School on Pope’s Hill and Brooke Charter School in Mattapan would each add grades to become K-12 schools if the recommendation of Comr. Mitchell Chester is adopted by the board.

On Tuesday, Chester also announced his recommendations in support of two new charter schools in Springfield and Brockton. Faced with an initiative petition aimed at opening the state up to more charter schools, lawmakers are weighing proposals with an eye toward opening up opportunities and narrowing the achievement gap while paying attention to the impacts of expansion on traditional public school districts.

“The fundamental issue is that these are all public schools. They ought to be operating in roughly a similar fashion and there ought to be a funding mechanism that doesn’t cannibalize one to support the other,” Senate President Stan Rosenberg said on Tuesday. There are 80 charter schools in Massachusetts and another 17 can be created under the existing cap, according to Rosenberg, who noted that additional charters can also be created outside the cap in low-performing school districts.

Dorchester’s Neighborhood House Charter School currently has about 400 students in grades K 1-8. It hopes to add 428 high school seats. Kate Scott, the school’s executive director, told the Reporter last week that there is “a real desire to expand to move up into high school years.”