The term "Charter School" is
increasingly becoming part of the conversation when folks discuss
education, but what exactly is a Charter School? A Charter School is a
public school.
The Charter Schools Act states that the intent of the Legislature is to
provide opportunities for teachers, parents, pupils and community
members to establish and maintain schools that operate independently
from the existing school district structure, in part, as a way to
increase learning opportunities for students who are identified as
academically low achieving. They can be created by a group of parents, teachers,
administrators, community leaders, or a local community-based
organization. Traditional public schools can convert to become a
charter school (such as Bachrodt Elementary in our own San Jose Unified
School District). Charters often employ non-union teachers, thus
eliminating the many bargaining issues that regular public schools must
negotiate, and they are not bound by many of the state's education code
mandates. Charters are given the freedom to "experiment" with teaching
techniques that sometimes results in better student achievement.
Charter Schools may not charge tuition and may not discriminate against
a student on the basis of ethnicity, national origin, gender or
disability. They must also be nonsectarian in their programs,
admission policies, and employment practices, and they cannot teach
religion. Currently there are 809 charter schools operating in the
state of California, serving approximately 340,000 of our 6.4 million
school children, with about 4,000 charter schools nation wide.
This past January, I helped organize and participated in the first
ever, Charter Schools Summit, which was held at the Santa Clara County
Office of Education. We had 230 attendees, ranging from school board
members, charter school operators, superintendents, teachers, and Mayor
Chuck Reed. The purpose of the summit was to start a dialogue between
charter school proponents and regular school districts, as there are
many unintended consequences of the charter school movement. Some of
the concerns regular public school have with charters are:
1) Charters take money away from school districts. Currently this is
not a consideration for a district to deny a charter petition. Regular
public schools are funded through a system called the Average Daily
Attendance, and is paid on a per pupil basis. Frankly speaking,
charters can be devastating to a regular district school, particularly
in this harsh economic climate.
2)There is no legal mechanism for charters to share best practices with
district schools, thus not allowing the entire "experiment" portion of
the process to play all the way through. If charters would share their
best practices with districts, then districts could demonstrate the
need to rid themselves of that particular section of the education
code. If its good enough for charters, it should be good enough for
regular public schools.
3) Charters are the only publicly funded agency that is not governed by
publicly elected officials. Although they do have private governing
boards, they have little to no real public accountability verses the
districts who are under close scrutiny by the public they serve.
4) Competition doesn't actually improve education unless you are on an
even playing field. Charter schools do not have to bare the handcuffs
of the state accountability standards that districts have (although
this is slowly changing), as well as the many bargaining points brought
on by the unions.
5) Some charters do the very same thing that districts do. According
to the California State Board of Education only 15% of charters preform
better than regular public schools, 37% are preforming worse than
regular public schools, and the rest are doing about the same.
6) Charters are approved too easily and too quickly. A district is
allotted 60 days to evaluate a charter petition, and must pull staff
away from important projects and at a great financial cost to the
district. If the Board of Education chooses not to authorize a
charter, the charter simply approaches the county, who helps them with
their petition and then handily approves the charter.
7) As a matter of practice, Charters actually do choose their
students. Unlike regular public schools, charters can require
parents of students to volunteer hours to the school. Studies prove
that parent involvement is the key to student success. (Look at our
own San Jose Unified Williams Elementary with their 30,000 plus hours
of parent volunteerism and their API score of 965) Additionally,
students who cannot or will not preform, will be removed from the
charter school, with bad test scores and or behavior problems, and
returned to the regular public schools. Regular public schools must
educate each student, regardless of situation, desire or background.
While this is not typical, it does occur.
These are just some of the issues that were openly and honestly
discussed at the summit. It is my belief that most charter operators
do want what is best for students, and can provide a way to increase
student achievement. I appreciate the fact that if a charter teacher
is not the best fit, that teacher can be removed quickly, much like an
employee in a private sector company. Having parents play a large part
of the education of their child is always a plus, and it is unfortunate
that all parents don't step up the plate here in regular public
schools. In conclusion, the debate continues, and by providing a
platform, such as this summit, we can begin to all work together for
the good of ALL the students under our care.
Leslie Reynolds
Board of Education Trustee
San Jose Unified School District