Monthly Letter to Friends
of The Center For Education Reform

No. 45, June 1998

North Carolina · Arizona · New York · New Jersey · Virginia · Ohio · Illinois · Michigan · California · Minnesota · Texas · Ohio (again) · Pennsylvania · North Carolina (again) · Arizona (again)

· North Carolina... Racial undertones are certainly at play as charters post dramatic achievement gains but opponents seek closure of 12 charters at which the racial balance does not match that of the district. Thanks to some local advocates in the Tarheel state, the Wall Street Journal covered the news that schools like Healthy Start, which serve children who have felt completely abandoned by the local traditional public school, face closure if a union-backed provision in the law is not repealed. It’s one thing to guarantee a fair and equitable education to all, but it’s another to deny access to children because of the color of their skin. And if that’s not enough, Senators in NC on June 30 put in their budget a restriction limiting charter growth to 4% of district enrollment.

· Arizona... The Tucson City Council has thrown its lot with the establishment to make life difficult for a few new charter schools (Tucson is already home to 29). Thanks to that new education policy venue called zoning, new Tucson charters need at least 5 acres to open, and traffic on certain streets where charters are scheduled to open mustn’t bring any more than ten times the traffic that occurred prior to the school opening.

· New York... This story on why the Empire State failed to legislate charters into being is a testament to why the NEA fears AFT affiliation. As the legislature was nearing completion of its session, and charters were a hot negotiating topic between Governor George Pataki and New York AFT union chiefs, it was clear that rather than bow to union pressure to mandate collective bargaining in charters, Pataki was holding firm to his commitment to bring strong legislation to bear. At issue was a $70 million annual bonus the teachers lobby for and usually get, which yields about $1,000 for each New York teacher, regardless of other contractual pay increases or performance. Pataki had vetoed the bonus twice, and was willing to do some old fashioned horse trading.

Enter New York City Chancellor Rudy Crew, much praised by the media for being innovative and more concerned about children than his predecessors. Crew only wants charters that he could approve and control. So he told the union he’d give them the $70 million out of his own $10 billion budget, so that the union didn’t need Pataki, he no longer had a bargaining chit, and the rest, as they say, is history. A little postscript to the state that almost had charters this year — Crew usually goes with his tin cup to the legislature, crying for more money. It’s funny how it’s actually there when you want to find it. I wonder how many schools and toilets could have been fixed with that $70 million. WHERE IS JONATHAN KOZOL AND HIS SAVAGE INEQUALITIES WHEN YOU NEED HIM!!!!!?????

· New Jersey... Yep, there again. A bill introduced by Sen. Larry Cafiero (R-District 1) would require school boards to approve future charters before seeking final approval from the Commissioner. It seems that those existing 13 charters and their 26 new neighbors are making school districts (who normally boast they are so good they don’t need any reform!) so nervous that the legislators are bending over backwards to circumvent real school reform. Perhaps more shocking and disconcerting is a little-known provision in the recently adopted state budget which appropriates $1.2 million for poor school districts (known as the Abbott districts, for the Supreme Court equity lawsuit that was waged) in which charter schools reside.

This "cushion" creates a double-funding of charter children, rewards districts whether they’ve lost children or not, and gets a lot of taxpayers, in the long run really p.o.-ed. Don’t think the lobbyists for this provision didn’t think of that, nor how such a seemingly modest provision for poor districts might grow once wealthier districts begin to demand the same. You don’t think it crossed their mind either that perhaps people would eventually get so sick of paying twice for the same students that charter growth in NJ would be severely limited, do you? Probably not.

· Virginia... "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder" is a lesson reinforced by this scenario. Seems the Virginia School Boards Association considers its law to be the "strongest, best" in the land. It’s components? Local school board approval, only two per district — one of which has to serve at risk children, no legal autonomy, teachers still part of the district...you get the picture. Still, VSBA prez Frank Burnham took issue with our characterization last month that the VA Charter law is among the most "seriously deficient — for now." He received our newsletter from the head of the Northhampton County, VA school board. Specifically, he wanted to clarify what we meant and suggest that perhaps we ourselves intended to lead the fight to change the Virginia law. In response, Burnham wrote the following to all of his school board members across the state:

"Thanks for [CER’s] newsletter, especially page 4: ‘All three are seriously deficient — for now.’ What they mean is Virginia law-for now-gives total local control to local school boards related to charter schools, and they-the Center for Education Reform people and its supporters - intend to lobby the General Assembly in 1999 and beyond to change the law to give authority to the State Board of education to approve charter schools.

"That is why the VSBA urges school boards that receive requests for charter schools to schedule a public hearing and possibly adopt a resolution to receive applications and establish stringent [emphasis added] evaluation criteria in order to keep the General Assembly from using non-action on requests by local school boards as excuses to change the law. Any charter school law that gives the final decision to the local school board is ‘seriously deficient’ in the eyes of these [heavens!] people. This ‘deficiency’ is precisely what makes the Virginia law that VSBA lobbied successfully for the ‘strongest, best’ charter school law in the Nation."

When it comes to our intentions, he’s only half-right. We don’t intend any lobbying — but we’re aware of several teachers, school board members and home-grown Virginia business leaders who will. As far as our belief that the state board should have charter approval authority, we’ll go one step further — on the record. We know that charter schools only really get approved if multiple authorities are available for charter organizers. So in addition to the state board, how about the fabulous state universities like University of Virginia, and even the Mayors of Norfolk, Hampton and other cities with high numbers of poor children? We won’t be whistling dixie in Ole’ Virginie next year, but real opportunity for children through charters is the only song we’ll be singing.

(By the way, these VA school board members both assert that there aren’t any successful charter schools "as determined by test scores or other academic data." Actually, there are, Mr. Burham. You can find them listed in chapter 4 of the Center’s Charter School Workbook, as well in this communique and in a forthcoming release. We’ll get you your own subscription to the Monthly Letter right away so you can stay on top of these successes, too.)

· Ohio... the Toledo school district just doesn’t get it. They put an old school building up for auction and the highest bidder by far happened to be a new community (charter) school. Rather than see educational improvements in their district, the school board pulled the building off the market and cited a statute that claimed they could remove the building from the auction if the selling of it would harm the district. Geez.

...And the Stuff That Dreams are Made of

· Illinois... Sight of the famous Thomas Jefferson Charter debacle throughout 1997 that saw this fledgling charter’s application rejected over a dozen times by school boards which felt that helping a measly hundred children or so wasn’t worth their time. Because legislators pressured the State Board of Education to use it’s newly gained authority to overturn silly school board maneuvers, the State Board voted 7-1 to overturn the rejection of the TJ Charter by Arlington Heights. But more than the approval itself, recognition and encouragement go to the parents and supporters of the charter who throughout all this bickering held fast together in their commitment to better education. Among the many: Jackie Gallison and Marilyn Keller-Rittmeyer. Cheers, ladies!

· Michigan... Doubting Thomases will be buoyed by this news: Over half of the MI charters posted considerable academic gains among their students on the state test, released in June. Students at Detroit’s Colin Powell Academy (K-6) posted 22 point gains in 4th grade reading, 57 points in 4th grade math, and 13 points in 5th grade science. Excel Charter Academy in Grand Rapids exceeded statewide averages in all subjects. According to the Michigan Assoc. of Public School Academies, "despite a statewide decrease in writing scores, a third of Michigan’s charter schools saw an increase in 5th grade writing - half of those by 20 points or more. In all areas, a majority of charters excelled, and most surpassed state averages.

· California... At Fenton Avenue Charter School in Lake View Terrace reading, math and language scores were five percentile points higher in their latest assessment. Over 95% of Fenton students qualify for free and reduced lunch. Fenton is one of four LA area charters that received renewals for another five years.

· Minnesota... The Minneapolis-based New Visions School serves 180 inner-city students, many of whom had trouble in their prior public school experience. Over the last five years, students have gained more than one year of academic growth per year on average as measured by two different norm referenced tests.

· Texas... Eighty-nine percent of West Houston’s 120 Charter School students (mostly special needs) gained at least one year of academic growth during the 1996-1997 school year.

· Ohio... The State Board breathed life into the state’s first nine charter schools, which will be located in Akron, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Dayton and Youngstown and serve approximately 2,100 children. The Dayton Business Committee has also been approved to operate a charter next year.

· Pennsylvania... While Philadelphia school officials are probably not ready to admit it, charters and the threat of other reform efforts stimulated the School board to adopt stricter promotion standards, higher graduation requirements, and overall, a commitment to ensuring that no child passes from grade to grade without having mastered certain academic requirements. They also approved an additional nine charter schools to open this September.

· North Carolina... The kindergartners at The Healthy Start Charter School deserve a round of applause for their great scores on the IOWA Test of Basic Skills released in June. They averaged in the 99^th percentile for reading and the 97^th percentile in math on the national achievement test. Ironically enough, this is the same school whose charter is jeopardy because the student population is not racially balanced.

· Arizona... The Stanford 9 Achievement Test results are in, and among others, the Challenge Charter School in Phoenix saw an increase in reading among first graders in excess of one year, and in math, children who started off the year below grade level finished well into the grade 2 level curriculum. Kindergartners and second graders also posted high scores.

CER Monthly Letter June 1998
The Decision that Made Milwaukee Famous · Voice of Reason · Reluctant Debutante or Courageous Soul? · Taking a "Paige" From a Choice-minded District Superintendent · Pressure-Points · Penny-Wise... · ...And Pound Foolish · While we’re on the subject of choice... · Top Ten Ways to Spend Your Budget Surplus

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