CER Op-Ed
by Jeanne Allen, President
The Center for Education Reform
Cincinnati Post, January 16, 1996
Real education reform may be on the Statehouse doorstep. The Ohio House has already passed legislation allowing for the creation of new community schools, or charters schools. Passage by the Senate, plus the governors signature, would put Ohio on the cutting edge of nationwide public school reform efforts.
But what is a charter school?
First and foremost, a charter school is a public school. It is funded by the local school district, must practice open admission, meet basic health and safety standards, and comply with civil rights laws.
However, most charter schools are not bound by state education codes in curriculum, personnel rules, district scheduling requirements, or financial administration rules. This gives them unparalleled freedom and flexibility compared to their traditional public school counterparts.
This flexibility has made charter schools extremely popular among parents. In a Minnesota survey, parents cited such things as curriculum, teachers, staff, small classes, longer classes, a good overall environment and school resources as advantages of charter schools. As a result, many schools have waiting lists. In Massachusetts, eight charter schools received a total of 1,316 applicants for 882 seats. In another case, University Public School in Michigan received 5,223 applicants for 330 spots.
Charter schools are even popular among teachers. A report by the Education Commission of the States observed "there is strong interest among educators in accepting the challenge charter legislation offers." The Boston renaissance Charter School received 1,000 teaching applicants for only 40 spots.
Charter independence has already unleashed dramatic changes in some public schools. The Vaughn Next Century Learning Center, a charter school in Los Angeles, used its freedom from red tape to boost attendance and increase its funding. In its first year, Vaughn realized a $1.2 million surplus, reduced class sizes, hired new teachers, and added a computer lab and a teacher resource center. The surplus will also be used for future expansions and facility upgrades.
Charter-driven reform also has created an extraordinary degree of diversity because the schools are designed to meet the educational needs of individual students and communities. For example:
City Academy in Minnesota, the nation's first charter school, targets students with a history of poor academics and behavioral problems.
Jingletown, a charter school in California, emphasizes bilingual education.
A school in rural Minnesota, faced with imminent closure, revived itself as a charter school. Charter school legislation gave the school the flexibility it needed to gather community and business support and stay open. It now serves 200 children.
Two-thirds of the charter schools target a cross-section of students, and half specifically target at-risk children.
In Michigan, a survey of ten charter schools operating in November 1994 found that approximately 49 percent of the students were minorities. Public schools, in contrast, had only 23 percent minority enrollment.
Not surprisingly, a survey of more than 100 operating charter schools found that the driving force behind the charter school movement was the opportunity to provide "better teaching and learning for all kids."
With all this diversity, are charters accountable to anyone? Charter schools, in fact, typically face far more stringent standards than traditional public schools. Their goals are set out in a contract with the state, local school district or other sponsoring agency (e.g. public university). If they fail to meet those goals, their charters are revoked.
What can Ohio learn from these experiences? First, charter schools may be one of the more important and viable educational reform efforts in existence today. Second, public policy has a critical role to play.
Legislation can encourage or discourage charter schools. Arizona, for example, has one of the strongest charter school laws on the books. This is why, in just one year, 46 charters have been approved, serving more than 6,000 children. In fact, states with strong laws are home to 92.7 percent of the charter schools.
Whether charter schools will be successful in Ohio depend crucially on whether state legislators let them. Ohio should join the ranks of the other strong charter states and authorize community schools. This will permit the kind of innovation that will allow public school to meet the educational challenges of Ohio students and communities.
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Jeanne Allen is author of THE SCHOOL REFORM HANDBOOK: How to Improve Your Schools, and president of The Center for Education Reform in Washington, DC, a national non-profit advocacy group providing support and guidance to thousands of individuals and communities nationwide who are working to bring fundamental reforms to their schools. For more information, please call (202) 822-9000 or (800) 521-2118, or send e-mail to cer@edreform.com.