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Merger Shouldn't Stop Charters

“Charter school denials draw criticism from state education commissioner”
Kevin Huffman has words for unified school board
By Jane Roberts
Commercial Appeal
December 2, 2011

It’s “bad policy,” says the state commissioner of education, for school districts to systematically deny charter school applications, whether for financial reasons or because the community is in upheaval over a pending school merger.

“We need to get out of the business of believing that (the per-pupil) funding belongs to the school system, that our goal is to preserve funding for that school system,” Kevin Huffman told The Commercial Appeal editorial board Thursday.

Instead, he said, the mindset should be that “parents should have a role in figuring out where their kid is going to go to school, and it is appropriate for funding to move with the child to a new public school.”

He was responding to last week’s decision by the unified Shelby County Board of Education to deny 14 applications for new charter schools. Officials said the fiscal consequences of opening so many schools would endanger the viability of Memphis City Schools and Shelby County Schools.

Last spring, the state legislature gave districts the prerogative to reject charters if the schools would have a “substantial negative fiscal impact” on the school district.

State Treasurer David Lilliard will rule on the school board’s decision within 30 days of receiving the final documentation.

In a joint report to him, SCS and MCS officials say the new schools would create an “immediate, substantial negative fiscal impact” on both districts, subjecting MCS alone to a 70 percent increase in charter costs.

As charters have grown, the money MCS either spends on joint services for charters or loses in per-pupil taxes has gone from $1.9 million in 2003 to $51 million today.

If it has to support the 12 additional charters on top of the two it already approved this fall, MCS says its costs would spike to $87 million.

Based on enrollment projections, MCS expects a minimum of 2,920 students would transfer to the new charters or the 25 schools that already exist in the city district. SCS expects it would lose 400 students next year to charter transfers if the board is forced to approve the applications.

The loss would come on top of declining enrollment. MCS estimates it will have 1,296 fewer students next year; SCS anticipates 1,100 fewer students.

Huffman finds it “hard to imagine” that districts already dealing with such annual “influx and outflux” of students would automatically say that losing per-pupil funding “means somehow we can’t open any of these schools.

“I don’t think that is an appropriate way to think about things,” he said.

The handful of parents who spoke to the school board Tuesday on the charter decision supported the vote.

“I worried about the charter schools,” said parent Katy Leopard. “There are many, many children in Memphis whose parents do not advocate for them, will not stand in line to get into optional programs or go to the lengths you certainly have to go through to get into charter schools.

“It’s our responsibility and certainly the responsibility of the school board to make sure all the children in the county are served.”

Board members say the outlook might be different if charters were taking over entire schools. Because the students transfer a few at time in targeted areas, the local school board still has to staff the same number of classrooms and pay the same number of bus drivers.

“The charter schools concept is a ‘theory of action’ for reform of education,” said SCS board member Betty Mallott.

“That theory is still being tested in Tennessee and throughout the nation. Because education funding is shrinking along with other public service funding, we are all competing for the same meager funds,” she said.