CER Letter to the Editor

SETTING THE RECORD STRAIGHT ON CHARTER SCHOOLS
By Jeanne Allen
Submitted to the Washington Post, December 29, 2000

Dear Editor:

        Issues raised in a recent report on charter schools conducted by the Texas legislature have been the subject of national attention, including a Washington Post article, "Texas Charter School Moratorium Urged" (12/29/00). The report is constructive, for it raises the fact that for the first two years of Texas' charter school law implementation, there was not a strong accountability process to ensure that approved schools were properly reviewed, trained and monitored. The process has since tightened, but in the meantime, several problem schools have closed or seen concerns arise.

        Unfortunately, the committee's heavy-handed recommendations would throw the baby out with the bathwater, and there are several conclusions to be drawn that the legislative committee overlooks.

        The response should not be to more heavily monitor schools, but to make sure those approved have the elements for success, including curriculum, financial experience and demand. On top of those elements, they need to have a guaranteed performance goal and an assessment mechanism that mirrors the state's own test that will help the state gauge success.

        While the report offers some common sense suggestions, such as minimum training for charter board members and school management staff, other proposals - such as additional licensing and certification regulations - would take charters down the road toward becoming virtually indistinguishable from traditional public schools. Were that the result, such successful schools as the famed KIPP Academy would have no chance of being formed.

        Nor does the report offer concrete proposals to prohibit traditional public schools from "dumping" their unwanted students into charter schools. While offering both statistical and concrete evidence that such dumping occurs, the committee ignores what may be the single greatest factor for the underperformance of some charter schools - and then suggests that charters aren't doing their job when they don't do as well as traditional public schools.

        The challenges in Texas are more visible today because the state just gave us our 43rd President. But they are not unique, and they are not insurmountable. Charters require us to think about educating children in a different way, and to be open to waiting for academic results as opposed to constantly monitoring processes and rules, only to find out generations later that we failed.

        Most charter schools are succeeding in their mandate and when they do not, they are closed, as they should be. But to end the growth of charters simply because some schools do not succeed is to return huge numbers of at-risk students back to the traditional public schools where they were failing in the first place - and where in too many cases, academic failure is sustained in non-performance-bound schools.

Sincerely,
Jeanne Allen
President, The Center for Education Reform

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For more information on the progress of charter schools, see CER Action Paper What the Research Says About Charter Schools 2000, November 2000.

The Center for Education Reform [CER] is a national, independent, non-profit advocacy organization providing support and guidance to individuals, community and civic groups, policymakers and others who are working to bring fundamental reforms to their schools. For additional information on education reform please call CER at (202) 822-9000.

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