Rollins Remains Skeptical on Charters

“I’m not going to guarantee I can be convinced

that charter schools would be a good thing.”

-- Rep Carl Rollins

This from C-J:

...[Education Commissioner Terry] Holliday said Tuesday that he has been discussing charter schools with education groups to see if a compromise could be reached. He said Kentucky probably won’t win Race to the Top money without charter schools.

“We’ll look at what we can do,” he said before a meeting with [Governor Steve] Beshear and representatives of the Kentucky Education Association and Jefferson County Teachers’ Association.

KEA, JCTA, House Democrats and many local superintendents oppose the charter school concept.

KEA President Sharron Oxendine said her group is open to working with the governor and House and Senate leaders to make a charter schools bill more palatable to teachers.

“I don’t think we’re ever going to be in love with a charter schools proposal, but we understand the state desperately needs funds,” she said.

Oxendine said KEA wants a bill that requires more local control over charter schools and a requirement that teachers be certified.

Rep. Carl Rollins, the Midway Democrat who is chairman of the Education Committee, said he’s willing to discuss the idea, but “I’m not going to guarantee I can be convinced that charter schools would be a good thing.”

Rollins said he isn’t certain legislators can come up with a charter schools proposal that would be palatable to teachers’ groups.

Oxendine told the Ashland Daily Independent,

A bill passed in the Senate in the just concluded session allowed local boards of education to charter such schools, but wants more assurance that the schools would have to employ certified teachers. “We feel like every child deserves a certified teacher,” Oxendine said. “If you’ve got a 100 kids and there’s one teacher and four or five teaching assistants, that would be a key for us.”

Oxendine said KEA will never be enthusiastic about charter schools but doesn’t want to impede the state’s ability to secure the federal funding. She said KEA is most interested in general funding for education and teacher pay and benefits...

...Beshear continued Tuesday to say he wants a special session sooner rather than later to pass a new state budget and would consider calling it before the May 18 primary election if legislative leaders could agree to a budget in advance. “I would certainly look at (May 10) if the House and Senate leadership would come to an agreement by that time,” said Beshear. He said he needs a budget by June 1 in order to re-finance bonds in the general fund and road funds to save about $170 to $180 million dollars which both House and Senate budgets counted on to balance...