Hosted
by The Center for Education Reform
Hosted
by The Center for Education Reform
CHARTER SCHOOLS CREATE COMPETITION THAT MAKES OTHER
SCHOOLS WORK HARDER
by Sarah Tantillo
Asbury Park Press, February 20, 1997
When Gov. Whitman and Education Commissioner Leo Klagholz handed out the charters to 17 newly selected charter schools on Feb. 4, it capped several weeks of excitement and concern about this new method of public education. The approval of charter schools raises questions for most New Jerseyans and concerns and hopes for others.
What are charter schools? How will they affect students, teachers, and public education in general? Will they force some school districts that are already struggling to make do with less funding?
Skeptics will argue that tinkering with education reform over the past dozen years has not improved the system, and that charters are unlikely to be more successful. But charter schools are defined by three characteristics that have been missing in most school reform efforts.
The three pillars of charter schools are community involvement, innovation, and increased accountability. These characteristics should be important to any school leader, but in many public schools they have been allowed to wither. The existence of charter schools should provoke school leaders to shore up their own foundations and work harder for systemic improvement.
The 17 approved charters are examples of how charter schools arise out of the needs and resources of their communities. The Trenton Community Charter School has sprouted from seeds planted by the Young Scholars' Institute, parents, educators, and other community members to address the needs of students and parents in the Trenton area.
In Hoboken, the Elysian Charter School will help its students appreciate the world's human and natural environments by studying their immediate environment - the people, resources, and history of Hoboken.
Freedom from many state regulations (except those pertaining to assessment, testing, civil rights, health, and safety) enables charter school organizers to experiment and create educational opportunities that students have not found elsewhere. They set forth a clear educational mission and employ innovative strategies to achieve that mission.
The North Star Academy Charter School of Newark, for instance, plans to propel low-income urban students to high levels of achievement by offering an extended day as well as an extended year, with rigorous academics, interdisciplinary classes, community service, and four-year advisors for fifth-through eighth-graders.
With this increased autonomy comes a higher level of accountability. Charter schools are held accountable for their missions and goals. They must accept all applicants (including those with special needs) and their students must meet the same testing and academic performance standards required of all public school students.
Unlike schools that graduate students who cannot read or write, however, charter schools must achieve the results promised in their charter, or the charter can be revoked and the school closed. Moreover, if they fail to attract and keep students, they will close.
Concerns and questions are in order at this point. Across the country, charter schools are attracting several thousands of students, but it is still too early to gauge their success in improving education. There is no doubt, however, that charter schools force existing public schools to compete for students and thereby funds. Indeed, injecting competition into public education is at the core of the charter school movement.
In New Jersey, each student who leaves the Camden public schools for the newly chartered Project LEAP Academy, for instance, will take 90 percent of the district's average cost per pupil. Suddenly, public schools have a financial incentive to innovate and improve educational outcomes - and to make students and families want to stay.
Charter schools might never enroll more than 10 percent of New Jersey's students, or 70,000 children in 135 schools. But with support by communities and institutions that understand their stake in improving educational outcomes, charter schools can succeed where other reform movements have failed - at impelling change throughout public education.
Public schools, like charter schools, should be reaching out to their communities, and communities should be reaching in. Existing public schools should seek increased community involvement, autonomy, and accountability. The broader community is willing to help when it is clear that they are welcome, and they can make important contributions: Leaders in business and higher education, as well as non-profit organizations and concerned individuals, have begun to share their expertise with charter schools.
Ultimately, charter schools will succeed if they generate this needed enthusiasm and support for all public schools, and if public schools move toward more rigorous accountability and more vigorous innovation. There is much work to be done. Granting the first 17 charters is only the beginning.
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Sarah Tantillo is the coordinator of the Charter School Resource Center of New Jersey , which is a project of the Partnership for New Jersey, New Brunswick.