KARE: Why public charter schools are important

Wayne Lewis and Hal Heiner of Kentuckians Advocating Reform in Education (KARE) described their vision for charter schools in Kentucky this week, but with regrettable hypernbole.

This from Wayne Lewis and Hal Heiner in C-J:

For Kentucky, we want a charter school law that has a high threshold; meaning applicants wanting to open charter schools will have to meet a rigorous standard before being granted a charter. We also want the law written so that charter schools that fail to meet their agreed upon expectations will be shut down with minimal difficulty.

Good. Having a strong law is crucial. But then...

In addition to this outcomes-based accountability that comes with charter schools, any parent that is unhappy with the charter school that their child attends simply takes the child out of the charter school and sends him/her to another school.

Another school? It might have been more honest to suggest that such students would be returned to the traditional public school, which is an important consideration since it relates to the issue of charters "creaming" students from the traditional public schools. Then there's this...

Charter schools provide additional school options for parents. We believe firmly that every parent should have public school options when deciding on a school for his/her child. No parent should be forced to continue to send his or her child to a school that cannot or does not serve that child’s needs. But unfortunately, tens of thousands of parents in Kentucky are forced to do just that. As we work to improve our traditional public school systems in Kentucky, we must also work to increase the availability of public school options for parents, both inside and outside of our traditional public school systems.

I agree with the general notion, but "tens of thousands of parents in Kentucky" !? I think KARE should be required to tell us which parents these are. All of the parents in which schools? This exaggerated number is inflammatory and untrue. While I agree that there is a good argument for allowing charters is some limited situations such hyperbole only serves to undermine the credibility of the writers.

All parents deserve quality school options; regardless of their ZIP code, education level, income, or social capital.

Not only true, but if we substitute the word "education" for "school options" it is guaranteed by the Kentucky constitution.

Quality public charter schools can be instrumental in giving parents across Kentucky access to quality public school options.

Not hardly, but it could be one vehicle, which if judiciously applied in limited cases of long-standing failure, that can be justified. The problem is that the way one organized for instruction is never the main ingredient in school success.

Prich Pushes Back on False Charter Claims

Kentucky students are not behind 
Indiana, Ohio, Tennessee, or the nation

This from Prichard:  

The information presented by KARE in commercials here and here and website text here invites serious misunderstandings. No matter your position on charter schools, Indiana, Ohio, Tennessee, and the nation are not doing better than Kentucky on the student performance measures KARE presents.

Fourth-Grade Reading
KARE’s commercials cite 2011 NAEP results showing:

• 65% of Kentucky students reading below the proficient level. 

That figure is correct, but Kentucky is not scoring behind the states with charter schools listed in the KARE commercial. Instead, the same assessment shows:

•  67% of Indiana students reading below the proficient level.
• 66% of Ohio students reading below the proficient level.
• 74% of Tennessee students reading below the proficient level. 
• 68% of students nationwide reading below the proficient level.

Fourth grade reading results do not show Kentucky scoring behind the states listed in the KARE commercial...

Union Bashing in Favor of an Improbable Solution

This from WFPL:

While Rallying for Charter Schools,

Supporters Ask Unions to Stand Aside

Advocates for charter schools in Kentucky took their cause to Frankfort today.

A handful of organizations support charter schools. One of the most vocal has been the Black Alliance for Educational Opportunities or BAEO. Its national president, Kenneth Campbell, helped lead the rally for charter schools at the Capitol. And he told the crowd Kentucky’s education system doesn’t serve all students equally.

“You know children and families in Kentucky are in crisis, as they are in a lot of places across this country,” Campbell said. “And the one tool we have for turning this whole thing around is education. And it doesn’t work for too many of our children. So what we want is for the political leaders of Kentucky to take a stand on behalf of children.

Many lawmakers were on hand for the rally, which came after a march around the Capitol. Former Louisville mayoral candidate Hal Heiner—who chairs a group running ads in support of charter schools—spoke to a crowded Rotunda audience. So did state Rep. Brad Montell, who has repeatedly filed legislation to legalize charter schools.

Supporters of the legislation are telling opponents—largely teachers’ unions—to get out the way.

“Again I think the only thing that holds it up are people who are supporting institutions more than children and families,” said Campbell. “People who are supporting adult issues and their organized interest versus the interests of children. At the end of the day nobody can look at our performance and say that what we have right now is working for all kids. And if it’s not then we need to talk about being bold and taking action.”

House Speaker Greg Stumbo has signaled an openness to charter school legislation this session. And House Education Chairman Carl Rollins says he may allow a bill to be voted on in his committee.

But opponents of charter schools say education improvement isn’t a certainty with charters. They point to mismanagement of charter schools in other states, lackluster improvement and the draining of funds from other public schools as reasons not to support charters.

C-J Editorial: Charter school mirage

This from the Courier-Journal:

Like an unwelcome relative at family gatherings, the push for charter schools has returned to Kentucky.

Politically, it needs to be taken seriously. Charter schools have had support in the past in the state Senate, and Senate President David Williams supported them during his unsuccessful Republican campaign for governor last year. Previous bids to authorize charter schools have died in the House, but there are some high-stakes issues confronting the General Assembly — expanded gambling, tax reform, a bid to create a state university in Pikeville, painful budget cuts — that could prompt game-changing bargains. Gov. Steve Beshear, who has seemed open to charter schools, can’t be counted on as a last line of defense.

But charter schools should not be approached as a political matter — or even as a financial one. (Some education officials and advocates argue that Kentucky must create charter schools in order to win Race to the Top federal dollars, but that actually is not a requirement.)

Charter schools are offered as an educational remedy. They are chartered by states, receive public money (and often funds from private foundations) and are technically public schools that cannot charge tuition and must offer open enrollment on a space available basis. But they are largely organized outside the daily operational control of state and local officials. In return, they agree to be held accountable for meeting results specified in the charter.

That has sounded good to some parents in other states, but the single most important consideration is that charter schools overall do not do as well as traditional public schools — even though charter schools generally can boot out children who don’t perform well.

A national assessment of charter schools in 2009 by the Center for Research on Education Outcomes at Stanford University found that only 17 percent of charter schools reported academic gains that were notably superior to those of traditional public schools, 37 percent showed gains that were worse, and 46 percent of charter schools showed no significant difference.

Moreover, they are simply not needed in Kentucky. Like charter schools, site-based management councils, under the KERA education reform, can make decisions for each school that supersede a school board’s authority. For all the hand-wringing, public schools in Jefferson County and statewide have been making significant progress in national rankings without charter schools.

And, at a time of cutbacks, this is no time to divert money from public schools.

Nationally, the charter school movement often has an anti-union ideological component. But in Kentucky, that would be creating a clash with unionized teachers that doesn’t exist now. Jefferson County teachers, to take one example, have agreed to modify significant traditional seniority-based processes on teacher assignments, particularly at persistently low-achieving schools.

Everyone wants to make Kentucky’s schools better. Charter schools are the wrong way to do it.

Review Finds Studies of Charter Schools Flawed, Problematic

This from State EdWatch:

Most studies of charter schools use unsophisticated methods and are flawed in ways that prevent researchers from accurately gauging those institutions' impact on student achievement, a new review concludes.

And while researchers have options for collecting more accurate information about charter school performance, they also face obstacles along the way—some of them related to the unwillingness among states and schools to provide crucial data, the analysis finds.

A meta-analysis of charter school studies revealed that about 75 percent of them do not meet rigorous research standards because they don't account for the differences in academic background and academic histories of students attending charters, when comparing them with those attending traditional public schools, according to the review, published in the renowned journal Science. Those studies typically fail to "disentangle school quality from the preexisting achievement level," or student self-selection of schools, the article says.

The article was written by Julian R. Betts, a professor of economics at the University of California, San Diego, and Richard C. Atkinson, a former president of the University of California system who also once served as director of the National Science Foundation.

High-quality research on charters is nonetheless beginning to emerge, they say. Much of it is coming from charters that have so many applicants that they must use lotteries for admission. Because getting in or not getting in is based on chance, the students who fail to secure a spot represent a sound "control" group necessary for a study, Betts and Atkinson say.

The relatively small number of lottery-based studies of charter schools have generally shown that they either outperform or perform at the same level as traditional public schools, according to the authors. But those studies cover only a small fraction—about 2 percent—of charter schools nationally.

Of course, many education advocates and scholars have long been frustrated by the paucity of rigorous research across the spectrum of school policy—not just with charters. (See my colleague Debbie Viadero's exceptional reporting on this.) The shortage of research is sometimes attributed to the difficulty of arranging high-quality, sustained studies of student populations in school settings...

Pro Charter Group meets with C-J Editors

UK Prof Wayne Lewis tells C-J Editors 
that poor kids are "sentenced" to bad schools

This from The Courier-Journal:

Former Louisville mayoral candidate Hal Heiner is leading a campaign to allow charter schools to be established in Kentucky.

Heiner has formed a nonprofit organization, Kentuckians Advocating Reform in Education, to push the General Assembly to allow for charter schools. Among its efforts is a $120,000 ad campaign on television and radio.

The former Metro Council member said his advocacy was born of concern about the Jefferson County Public School system’s dropout rate, as well as other education issues frequently raised when he ran unsuccessfully for mayor in 2010.

Charter schools take different forms in each state, but they typically are operated with public funds by groups independent of local school systems. They do not have to abide by the same regulations as public schools, allowing for more hours in the school day, more class days and greater flexibility in instruction...

A bill authorizing charter schools passed the state Senate last year, but the House has not taken up such proposals. Rep. Carl Rollins, a Midway Democrat and chairman of the House Education Committee, said that, while he opposes charter schools, he’s considering bringing a bill sponsored by Rep. Brad Montell, R-Shelbyville, to the committee this session.

“I think it dilutes our focus,” Rollins said of charter schools. “I know we need to improve a lot of our schools, but at the same time I don’t think competition — starting new schools from scratch to compete with our public schools — is the way to solve the problem.”

Rollins said he’s considering bringing the bill up because of the longstanding support for charter schools among legislative Republicans and the Obama administration, and he thinks it’s worth debating.

“It doesn’t hurt to have a discussion and talk about it,” he said...

Heiner said he prefers only nonprofit organizations being granted charters and for the schools to be targeted to high-poverty communities. Parents would have to apply for their children to attend the schools, and a lottery would determine who gets in if applications exceed available spots, he said.

Religious groups would not be eligible to apply for charters, Burgan said...

Heiner said he is KARE’s largest contributor, and the other members are “Kentucky individuals.” Asked for a list of donors, Heiner said he’d consult with them to see if they want their names to be made public...

House Education Chairman Could Allow Charter School Vote

This from WFPL:

A vote on legislation that would allow charter schools may finally have it’s day in the Kentucky state House education committee.

House Education Chairman Carl Rollins says he’s considering allowing a charter school bill to receive a hearing and a vote in his committee this session. That’s been unheard of since Rollins assumed the chair of that committee.

Rollins makes no guarantee he’ll bring up a charter school bill, but says if there’s legislation out there he can deal with, a vote could happen.

“It would depend on what the bill is,” Rollins says. “I think the innovation districts bill would pass, I’m not sure if, and I think it passed last year and it’s the same bill this year. Charter schools have never really been voted on or brought up in committee, we have discussed them in the interim committee meetings but we’ve not voted on them.”

The “districts of innovation” bill is Rollins’s own take on charter schools. Instead of creating new public charters schools, it would allow current school districts, up to five a year, to break free of some state regulations to operate outside the box, more like charters. Rollins says the bill is “charter school-like.”

Charter school advocates aren’t in favor of Rollins approach, saying it’s more restrictive than actual charter schools. One group has made a push, through TV ads, to get the public on its side when it comes to advocating for charter schools. And House Speaker Greg Stumbo has said he’s willing to discuss the issue.

Rollins says the TV ads haven’t inspired his possible change of heart on charter school legislation.

One House lawmaker currently has a charter school bill up for discussion, Republican state Rep. Brad Montell of Shelbyville. And while Rollins didn’t specifically commit to hearing Montell’s bill, he did say if he allows a discussion of a charter schools bill, it will get a vote as well.

“If I call the bill I’ll let a vote,” Rollins said. “I don’t think I’ve ever called a bill, since I’ve been chairman, just for discussion that didn’t eventually get a vote.”

Opponents of charter schools say they don’t improve education significantly and they take resources from other public schools.

Rare Bipartisan Support Secures Charter Bill Passage

This from Education Week:

The U.S. House of Representatives took what has become a rare step last week: It passed an education bill with broad bipartisan support. The Sept. 13 bill involving charter schools passed by an overwhelming vote of 365 to 54—but there was still a lot of drama behind the scenes.

The measure is one of a number of small, targeted bills the House will consider in reauthorizing the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, currently known as the No Child Left Behind Act. It would allow states to tap federal funds to replicate charter school models that have a track record of success. Right now, the federal charter school program is financed at $255 million.

Charter Schools: Beneficial Or Detrimental To Rural Areas?

This from Rural Education:

It isn't easy to start a rural charter school, but it's an option some communities are embracing as a means of preserving sites that otherwise might be shuttered.

Indiana, for example, has one rural charter school—Rural Community Academy in Sullivan, Ind.—but it soon will be home to a second, Canaan Community Academy in Canaan, Ind.

Residents of this 99-person town lost their local school after the district decided to close it because of low enrollment. Later, they discovered a story by StateImpact, a collaboration of WFIU, Indiana Public Broadcasting stations and NPR, in which its reporters attempted to start a fake charter school, SimSchool, to show what that process involves.

From the story, Canaan residents learned about the Rural Community Academy, and they decided to turn their now-shuttered community school into a charter. Canaan Community Academy will open in August in the same building with donated furniture, computers and books, according to StateImpact.

Still, charter schools can be seen as a negative in rural communities when they become competitors instead of replacement options. When charter schools are launched alongside traditional schools, they often draw from the same student population, which decreases enrollment, and consequently the per pupil funding, of traditional schools.

The bottom line? "The charter school experiment appears dual-edged. For rural areas, the focus on school improvement might unify citizens. But poor economic conditions and conflicts might threaten these positive efforts," according to an ERIC Digest report on rural charter schools.

Nationally, the number of charter schools in rural areas is growing, according to the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools. The number has increased from 207, or 13 percent, of all charter schools in 2000 to 652, or 15 percent, in 2008, according to statistics cited by the National Charter School Resource Center. But those schools are still scarce; those living in rural Indiana, for example, would have to travel more than 40 miles in many cases to get to the nearest charter school, according to StateImpact.

As Kentucky Legislative Session Opens, Groups Start Stronger Push for Charter Schoolss

This from WFPL:

The debate over charter schools is one Kentucky educators and legislators have heard and argued over for the last several years.

But supporters of the education reform feel one party left out of those discussions is ready to be brought into the fold. A newly formed group called Kentuckians Advocating Reforms in Education (KARE) is launching TV ad buys across the commonwealth today to educate the general public about charter schools. KARE has spent $8,950 to air the ad on WLKY in Louisville. Former Metro Councilman and Republican mayoral candidate Hal Heiner is the group’s chairman.



Ads are usually reserved for political campaigns, not legislative issues, but KARE and other organizations like the Kentucky Charter School Project are targeting 2012 as the year charter schools should be passed into law in Kentucky.

KARE’s TV ad is running in every media market in the state except Northern Kentucky.

Kentucky is among nine states that have not passed any charter school legislation. Kentucky’s absence of charter schools is one thing many supporters of the reform say has kept the state from winning multiple Race to the Top federal education grants.

A bill to add charter schools has been filed by state Rep. Brad Montell, a Shelbyville Republican, for several years. And supporters in the state Senate have filed and passed bills in that chamber as well, but all the measures have died in the House.

Policy Brief: The Evidence on Charter Schools and Test Scores

This from the Albert Shanker Institute:

Charter schools are among the most controversial issues in education today, with much of the debate focused on whether they produce better testing results than comparable regular public schools. Too often, these discussions either rely on a tiny handful of studies, or on raw, cross-sectional testing results, which are not valid measures of school effects.

This policy brief provides an accessible review of the research on charter schools’ testing effects, how their varying impacts might be explained and what this evidence suggests about the ongoing proliferation of these schools.

The public debate about the success and expansion of charter schools often seems to gravitate toward a tiny handful of empirical studies, when there is, in fact, a relatively well-developed literature focused on whether these schools generate larger testing gains among their students relative to their counterparts in comparable regular public schools. This brief reviews this body of evidence, with a focus on high-quality state- and district-level analyses that address, directly or indirectly, three questions:

• Do charter schools produce larger testing gains overall?
• What policies and practices seem to be associated with better performance?
• Can charter schools expand successfully within the same location?

The available research suggests that charter schools’ effects on test score gains vary by location, school/student characteristics and other factors. When there are differences, they tend to be modest. There is tentative evidence suggesting that high-performing charter schools share certain key features, especially private donations, large expansions of school time, tutoring programs and strong discipline policies. Finally, while there may be a role for state/local policies in ensuring quality as charters proliferate, scaling up proven approaches is constrained by the lack of adequate funding, and the few places where charter sectors as a whole have been shown to get very strong results seem to be those in which their presence is more limited. Overall, after more than 20 years of proliferation, charter schools face the same challenges as regular public schools in boosting student achievement, and future research should continue to focus on identifying the policies, practices and other characteristics that help explain the wide variation in their results.

The Uncertain Future Of Charter School Proliferation

Closing schools is exceedingly difficult,

both logistically and politically.

And, even if states and localities

implement a closure regime, the real

question is whether they can open

superior alternatives. There is some brutal

logic here. There is only handful of charters

that consistently do very well (e.g., KIPP,

Achievement First). They rely heavily on

private donations, as does their capacity to expand.

This from the Shanker Blog:

This is the third in a series of three posts about charter schools. Here are the first and second parts.

As discussed in prior posts, high-quality analyses of charter school effects show that there is wide variation in the test-based effects of these schools but that, overall, charter students do no better than their comparable regular public school counterparts. The existing evidence, though very tentative, suggests that the few schools achieving large gains tend to be well-funded, offer massive amounts of additional time, provide extensive tutoring services and maintain strict, often high-stakes discipline policies.

There will always be a few high-flying chains dispersed throughout the nation that get results, and we should learn from them. But there’s also the issue of whether a bunch of charters schools with different operators using diverse approaches can expand within a single location and produce consistent results.

Charter supporters typically argue that state and local policies can be leveraged to “close the bad charters and replicate the good ones.” Opponents, on the other hand, contend that successful charters can’t expand beyond a certain point because they rely on selection bias of the best students into these schools (so-called “cream skimming”), as well as the exclusion of high-needs students.

Given the current push to increase the number of charter schools, these are critical issues, and there is, once again, some very tentative evidence that might provide insights.

One fairly simple way to take a look is to identify places where the charter sector as a whole has been shown effective. There are at least two major districts where this seems to be the case.

The first is New York City, as shown by a 2009 lottery study, which is discussed here (NYC charters were also shown effective in this paper). The other charter hotspot is Boston. A 2008 evaluation, part of which also used random assignment, found that, among Boston middle and high schools, charter students outperformed their regular public school counterparts by substantial margins (also see this analysis).

Charter supporters frequently point to these analyses as evidence that it’s not just a few chains scattered throughout the nation doing well – that NYC and Boston are among the largest districts in the U.S., both serve large proportions of disadvantaged kids, and that the charters in these cities are “showing it can be done.”

It’s fair to say that most of these schools are probably very well-run and doing great things. But, in the question of whether these efforts represent proof that charter sectors as a whole can produce results, it’s also important to note that, in both cities, charter “market share” is exceedingly small. In other words, in these two large, urban districts, there are very few charter schools...

Do Struggling Charter Schools Deserve a Second Chance?

This from Robert Slavin in Ed Week's Sputnik blog: 

Last week, I wrote about the "Struggling Schools and the Problem with the 'Shut It Down' Mentality." The post seemed to strike a chord, so I would like to encourage my readers to consider the same framework for struggling charter schools. Most people who follow research on charter schools would agree that there is little evidence that, on average, students in charter schools gain any more than similar children in non-charters. Charter advocates admit this to be true, but point to positive effects documented for outstanding charter networks, such as KIPP, and often vow to "weed out" failing charters from their ranks.

Opponents of closure of traditional public schools seem to accept this tough love approach for charters. I would like to suggest that their circumstances, and solutions, are more similar than some may think.

Unfortunately, "weeding out" (i.e., shutting down) ineffective charters is no easier than shutting down ineffective non-charters. In both cases, there may be a reasonable rationale for closing down the worst of the worst, but not only is closing any school financially and politically wrenching, a recent study of closing public schools found that students from the closed schools perform worse than similar children for a year or more and then end up doing no better. School closure (in charters as well as non-charters) must be an extreme solution in extreme circumstances to keep the system honest, but if other solutions exist, they should be tried first...

Lewis Offers One More Argument in Favor of Charters

Over at Education Policy Matters blog, Wayne Lewis has advanced his second and third arguments in favor of charter schools for Kentucky. His first was that charters offer parents choice.

His second installment asserts "a simple truth," that "the only children who attend public charter schools are those whose parents decided to enroll them in one."

So, charters are better because the folks who enroll their children in charters "are people who were believe that their children are be better served by the program(s) avaiable at their chosen charter school"(sic)? Even if the school is not performing poorly, so long as "parents are not satisfied" that the school is meeting their childrens' "specific needs" then charter schools ought to be available, Lewis argues.

"That's it. Nothing more. Public charter schools give parents options," Lewis writes, making school choice his first argument and his second argument.

Later he proposes Horace Mann's original conception of what the common schools should be: that is, as well supported as the best private schools. Alas, it didn't work out that way. Lewis argues that,

Saying no to the creation of public charter schools in Kentucky says to those Kentucky parents that because they don't have the resources that more affluent and connected Kentuckians have, their children don't deserve access to the same educational opportunities as other children.

Unfortunately, that is exactly what the public has said for decades. The public has long shown its desire to place limits on the amount of funding schools receive. Public schools never operated as though they were private. If they had things would have been different.

Argument number three is different, at least.

"In exchange for the increased autonomy or independence that charter schools receive they are held to high accountability standards," Lewis writes.

The phrase "in exchange" is curious. Traditional public schools are held to the very same high standards in exchange for...doing their jobs.

But charter schools have an important advantage, Lewis argues."The benefit of the charter school...is that if it does not work we can close it down."

There is mounting evidence that this is just not done in far too many cases where charters fail to meet their goals, so I'm suspicious. The suggestion seems to be that the market place will create good schools in response to demand, but it doesn't seem to always happen. And my guess is that options are fewest in more economically depressed neighborhoods. Besides, how strong of an argument is that?

In the present preschool market (including private preschools), parents are able to switch schools anytime they are unsatisfied with the school. Yet I hear preschool parents complain about their inability to find good options for their kids. Worse, I hear preschool teachers complain about the quality of care in some preschools. Apparently, it's not at all guaranteed that - if left to the marketplace - an adequate school will be within easy reach of every community.

There is also an historical "property rights" argument related to schools that have been chartered by the state. But I don't know if today's courts see that issue the same way they once did.

For Kentucky, we want a charter school law that has a high threshold; meaning applicants wanting to open charter schools will have to meet a rigorous standard before being granted a charter. We also want the law written so that charter schools that fail to meet their agreed upon expectations will be shut down with minimal difficulty. In addition to this outcomes-based accountability that comes with charter schools, any parent that is unhappy with the charter school that their child attends simply takes the child out of the charter school and sends him/her to another school. That's consumer accountability (Lewis & Fusarelli, 2010).

I'm not sold on the consumer accountability argument but I certainly agree that Kentucky ought to have a strong charter school law.

In Defense of Charter Schools

Over at Education Policy Matters blog, UK's Dr. Wayne Lewis has launched a defense of charter schools for Kentucky. Lewis began by simply laying out some charter basics, which he follows with his opening argument: Choice.

Charter schools provide additional school options for parents. I firmly believe that every parent should have public school options when deciding on a school for his/her child. No parent should be forced to send his or her child to a school that cannot adequately serve his/her child's needs; yet hundreds of thousands of parents across the country and tens of thousands of parents right here in Kentucky are forced to do just that. Parental options in the form of magnet schools, intradistrict and interdistrict public school choice, and charter schools all provide public school options for parents. I believe that as we work to improve our traditional public school systems we must also work to increase the availability of options for Kentucky parents both inside our traditional systems and outside. All parents deserve school options; regardless of their zip code, education level, income, or social capital. Quality public charter schools can be instrumental in giving parents across Kentucky access to public school options.

We'll keep an eye out as his rationale develops.

Lewis is an Outreach Coordinator for the Black Alliance for Educational Options (BAEO). BAEO is a national pro-voucher, pro-charter, pro-tuition tax credit group that has recently targeted Kentucky for activism.

Florida Christian school magically becomes public charter school

This from the Daily Koz:

Coming soon to a school system near you?

Let's say you were running a Christian private school, and were losing students when their families could no longer pay tuition in a tough economy. You'd have a number of options, from raising money from outside sources to cutting costs to shutting down. Or, in the current educational-political atmosphere, you could do what one Florida Christian school is doing: become a charter school.

"Seacoast Charter" is a new K-5 charter school that is run completely separately from Seacoast Christian School, which covers grades 6 through 12. Seacoast Charter will have many of the same students as it did in its previous life as a Christian school—but they'll no longer be paying tuition—and it will expand to include new students. People don't seem worried it will change too much:

Cindy Greene, who's raising a grandchild going into fifth grade at Seacoast, said she loves the school her granddaughter has attended since she was 3 years old. Two other grandchildren also attend the school.

While the Christian atmosphere was a big draw for the family, Greene said she didn't consider leaving. She said the same great teachers will still be at the school, so she's confident that it will remain a good choice for her family.

"I don't think the atmosphere will change," she said.

Same teachers, same administrators, same students. Raise your hand if you think the fact that chapel will no longer be part of the curriculum makes this a legitimate and aboveboard institution of public education in a country in which separation of church and state is the law of the land. While you're at it, raise your hand if you wonder what the rent arrangement will be between the publicly-funded "Seacoast Charter" and the Christian organization that presumably still owns the school facilities.

No matter how they publicize charter schools with tales of impassioned educators starting schools centered around creative ideas and a will to help kids—and such schools do exist—the rush to privatize opens our educational system up to profiteers and creative arrangements like this one.

Hat tip to Joe Meyer

Voucher Advocates meet with Lexington Blacks to Promote Charter Schools in Kentucky

Group lobbied Senate President David Williams

Kentucky Targeted for Mobilization

This from Jim Warren at H-L:

Representatives of a national education group met with African-American Lexington residents Monday, seeking grass-roots support for charter schools in Kentucky.

The state has no charter schools, and legislation allowing for their creation has gone nowhere in the Kentucky General Assembly. But the Washington-based Black Alliance for Educational Options and other organizations promoting educational choice contend that charters could provide valuable alternatives for minority and low-income parents who think traditional schools are failing their children.

"We are in crisis mode in terms of the education of our children," Black Alliance president Kenneth Campbell declared at Monday's session, citing estimates that half of black youths entering ninth grade this year won't finish high school. "How can we not explore this option, given what's going on with our kids?"

Another speaker, former NAACP executive director Benjamin Chavis, said that improving education is part of the unfinished business of the U.S. civil rights movement.

"The biggest civil rights issue today is the education of our children," said Chavis, an adviser to the Black Alliance. "Let's roll up our sleeves and get to work."...

The Black Alliance for Educational Options (BAEO) is a Washington-based advocacy group funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and the Walton Family Foundation, along with a host of pro-charter groups (some also funded by Gates) to agitate for expanded charter schools in America. Kentucky has been identified as a new "mobilization site."

The group also supports school vouchers, homes schooling, tuition tax credits and virtual schools.

In 2003, BAEO submitted a proposal to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation seeking a five-year grant of $4,000,000 to sponsor the development of 15 small, project-based high schools. In 2007, BAEO modified the original proposal to create only 8 high schools by 2010 in response to the growing concern amongst project members around quality and sustainability. By 2008 BAEO had three schools open that served approximately 831 students.

This from the 2010 BAEO Annual Report:

BAEO Started Groundwork for

Parental Choice in Kentucky

Under the leadership of National Advocacy Director, Shreé Medlock, the Black Alliance for Educational Options (BAEO) started grassroots efforts in Kentucky 2010. Kim Mapp and Pastor Jerry Stephenson, two BAEO KY State Outreach Coordinators have hit the ground running, holding events to inform and educate local community and business leaders, clergy and
parents about education reform and the parental choice movement.

The team recently held meetings in Louisville, Lexington, and Frankfurt(sic). Medlock gave the keynote address during a parent meeting in Louisville where approximately 25 parents participated in discussions focused on the need for parents in Kentucky to be involved in the education reform movement.

In Lexington, the team met with a coalition of groups at the Imani Church. BAEO President Kenneth Campbell led a discussion on charter schools and the educational options BAEO supports.

Participants included members of the faith-based community, elected officials, candidates, business and community leaders, and coalition members. “Parents in Kentucky want more options. We’re planting seeds that will reap tremendous fruit for education reform and parental choice in Kentucky,” said Medlock.

Under the leadership of Campbell and Todd Ziebarth, Vice President for State Advocacy and Support for the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, BAEO and its community partners presented to the Kentucky House Education Committee.

The BAEO team in Kentucky also met directly with Senate President David Williams.

Senate Passes Charter, “Neighborhood” Schools Bill amid Passionate Debate

Measure Moves to House

When Session Resumes in February

This from KSBA:

At the end of a rare Friday afternoon debate, the Kentucky Senate narrowly voted 21-17 to pass Senate Bill 3, the charter school, “neighborhood” schools legislation championed by President David Williams (R-Burkesville).

An often passionate 80-minute debate between Democrat and Republican senators dwelled little on the issues of creating charter schools, but rather on how districts set school attendance boundaries – the “neighborhood schools” language. As in Thursday’s Senate Education Committee hearing, the focus was on the controversial Jefferson County Schools’ student assignment plan and the bill’s proponents desire to give parents greater say in having their children attend schools closest to their homes.

Both sides in Friday’s exchanges made local decision making by school boards as a primary focus of their support and opposition to both the charter schools and school attendance boundary subjects...

Support for charter schools had been building to some degree as a new advocacy group formed in Lexington. As Jim Warren reported in the Herald-Leader, interest in charter schools in Lexington has grown in recent months with the creation of Asteroids, a group of parents, educators and clergy who have been discussing charter schools since about September. To be sure, there is no groundswell of charter school support yet. And no one has indicated any intention of starting a charter school in Lexington if the General Assembly approves enabling legislation.

"I guarantee you there is lot of frustration among parents with the public school system in Lexington," said Brandi Carey, a mother of four who says a charter school could provide Lexington students with more choices in language immersion programs.

Talk about charter schools previously has been limited mainly to Louisville, where
some parents are calling for charters as alternatives for students in persistently low-achieving public schools.

Rev. Willis Polk, pastor of Lexington's Imani Baptist Church, told H-L that too many students are falling through the cracks and charters could be a valuable addition, if enabling legislation is properly crafted.

"Many of our children graduate from high school, go to college, and arrive there with great deficiencies. Something must be done. Some people are looking at [charters] and hoping and praying that some kind of alternative is made possible for our kids."

Polk's church serves members from the Booker T Washington, Leestown, Bryan Station, and other areas.

SB 3, which is being called “the voluntary charter school bill,” would allow local school boards to create public charter schools free from many existing state and local rules for operating schools to improve educational opportunities for children attending the charters.

Unsuccessful charter applicants could appeal denials or restrictions required by the local school board to the Kentucky Board of Education, which could overturn them. Charter schools would be given three to five years to demonstrate their impact before facing possible loss of their operating authority.

In committee, Senate President David Williams, the bill’s chief sponsor, argued that charter schools are just another tool for “intervention” in low-performing schools, similar to the transformation options schools now use.

Sen. Gerald Neal, D-Louisville, said that while he’s not opposed to charter schools, he is concerned about how they would be structured and their accountability as outlined in the bill.

Senate Bill 3 sailed out of the Senate Education Committee on Thursday, with all five Democrats on the committee voting against it.

But the bill is not only about charter schools. It also contains provisions that under some circumstances, would allow students to attend the school closest to their home - a measure with questionable consequences. Williams argued,

“The only thing this bill does is to give individual parents some authority to negotiate and say ‘I want my child to attend the school closest to our residence within the school attendance boundary,’ rather than have some bureaucrat decide whether that child goes to that school or somewhere else. This bill does not take local control away, it just guarantees parent control.”

So the whole thing turned into an argument over local control - only this time it was Republicans supporting the state imposition of attendance boundary solutions on local school boards.

KSBA reported,

Sen. Gerald Neal (D-Louisville) urged defeat of SB 3, saying it would indeed negatively impact local decision making, as was argued Thurday by three members of the Jefferson County Board of Education.

“These complex issues will not be resolved by actions taken by the state as opposed by those policy makers who are on the ground. An election was just held (in Jefferson County) and all of those (school board members) were re-elected. That’s a public expression of democracy in action. This body, particularly the (Republican) majority has consistently spoken that decision making should take place on the local level. This is a break from that,” Neal said.

Neal unsuccessfully sought to amend the bill’s mandates with a study of the measure’s impact.

“It’s very important that we identify the districts in the state that are likely to be affected. We don’t know that,” he said. “The potential increase in costs of facilities, student transportation and other operations. We don’t know that. Identification of potential impact on diversity and access to special programs. We don’t know that. This study would be central considering what we don’t know, but what we should know when we take a step like this,” said Neal.

The fun-filled 2011 General Assembly resumes on Feb. 1. The issue now goes to the House of Representatives where Speaker Greg Stumbo harbors doubt over its likely success.

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Senate President David Williams, R-Burkesville, told the Courier-Journal on Monday, that he thought several bills would pass the Senate this week - a week usually reserved for organizational matters. The Courier reported that "significant action on several major bills would be unprecedented during the first week of a short regular legislative session..."

Williams released the GOP agenda which included (the good) creating a commission to recommend changes in the state tax code and allowing local school districts to establish charter schools, (the bad) moving new state workers into a 401(k)-type pension plan, and (the ugly) adopting an Arizona-style immigration law.

There were complaints from the Governor and Democratic legislators, who told C-J they had not seen drafts of any of the bills. Williams assured C-J that "the majority Senate Republicans strongly backs all of the bills." Apparently, Senate GOP bill drafts were made available to the media, but only to some members of state Senate.

But, Democrats control the House and Speaker Greg Stumbo, D-Prestonsburg, told CNHI's Ronnie Ellis he doesn’t expect the House to conform to Williams’ accelerated schedule, instead using the first four days for organization. He seemed lukewarm about most of the provisions Williams is pushing and suggested Williams might be motivated by politics. Stumbo doubts Tax Modernization will go anywhere, but a proposed study passed a Senate committee today. The panel also passed Senate Bill 13 which would expand on a privately funded program called Advance Kentucky that already gives cash incentives to math and science teachers in 44 participating schools across the state.

Williams, a declared candidate for governor is on the fast track. But he did find time to squelch dissent on education issues by throwing Louisville's Tim Shannessy off the Education Committee.

First up for education? SB 3: Charter Schools and "Neighborhood Schools" bills.

But a hearing that was supposed to take place today on SB3 was moved back to Thursday. Committee Chairman Sen. Ken Winters (R-Murray) apologized for the delay saying, "We have some of the sponsors who are involved in a meeting out of town and they will not get back before we adjourn.”

This from KSBA:

The Senate Education Committee has now set an 11 a.m. ET Thursday, Jan. 6 hearing on SB 3.

SB 3 would allow local school boards to create public charter schools free from many existing state and local rules for operating schools in an effort to improve educational opportunities for students attending those schools; allow unsuccessful charter applicants to appeal denials or restrictions required by the local school board to the Kentucky Board of Education, which could overturn them; and would require charter schools be given three to five years to demonstrate their impact before facing possible loss of their operating authority.

SB 3 also would create a new set of student enrollment rules relating to the distance between their homes and the public schools in which they enroll. Although the controversy over the Jefferson County Public Schools’ student assignment system has been tied to the bill by both sponsors Seum and Williams, the language of the bill would apply statewide.

The Senate Education Committee did approve Senate Bill 12, which would have principal vacancies filled by the superintendent, after consultation with the school’s site-based decision making council.

So far, 35 Bills have been filed that may impact education.

Education, Elementary and Secondary
11RS
WWW Version

African-American male student achievement, study of - HCR 15

Attendance
areas, establishment by local boards - SB 3
in schools closest to residence - SB 3

Body
mass index, preventative healthcare examination forms - SB 32
mass index, school physical examination forms - HB 89

Charter
school, requirements for - HB 103
schools, application and approval of - HB 103
schools, establishment of - SB 3
schools, renewal or revocation of charter - HB 103

Compulsory attendance, age limit, raising of - HB 75

Digital citizenship, inclusion in discipline code and professional
development - HB 30

Early
childhood assessment and intervention, district-wide
implementation of - HB 17
education assessment and intervention, implementation of - HB 86

Evaluation, certified personnel - HB 120

Foster children, dual credit and dual enrollment courses,
tuition waiver - HB 13

Great Schools Tax Credit Program, establish - HB 98

Juvenile status offense actions, requirements for - HB 123

Laptop computers, middle school students, study - HCR 7

Mandates on public schools, financial support for - SB 35; HB 39

Persistently low-achieving schools, development of charter
schools in lieu of - SB 3

Physical
activity of children, assessment of and data use - HB 16
activity of children, increasing - HB 88

Principal selection, appointment by the superintendent after
consultation with the school council - SB 12

Programs, career and technical education - SB 36

Scholarship eligible high school student, definition of - HB 112

School
attendance - SB 21
buses, commercial advertising on - HB 62, 67
calendar, starting date - SB 31
meal program, clarification of access to - HB 81

Scientific theories, critical analysis, teaching of - HB 169

Student
assignment plans, funds for implementation of - SB 28
religious expression, support of - HR 25

Students with disabilities, alternative high school diploma for - HB 171

Suicide prevention, Rachael's Law - HB 134

Teachers of advanced science and mathematics, monetary awards for - SB 13

Photo By David Perry at H-L; Hat tip to KSBA

Montell's New Charter Bill

This from BizLex:

Rep. Brad Montell pre-files charter school
legislation for the 2011 session

Five year pilot program seeks to allow
20 charter schools in Kentucky

Rep. Brad Montell, R-Shelbyville (58th District), today pre-filed legislation for the 2011 session that if passed would allow the establishment of charter schools in Kentucky. If approved Montell's bill would set up a five-year pilot program for charter schools in the Commonwealth, and allow the creation of up to 20 charter schools...

"Because Kentucky doesn't currently allow for charter schools, it cost us two different opportunities to receive Federal funding through the Race to the Top program. Those funds could have been used to prepare our best and brightest students for the challenges of a growing global economy," said Montell. "It is
time that we bring our commonwealth back to educational prominence and permit charter schools in Kentucky."

In addition to allowing the creation of charter schools under a five-year pilot program, Montell's bill proposes other related changes:

• Creation of the Kentucky Public Charter Schools Commission, which would oversee the charter schools program in the commonwealth. While the commission would act independently from the Kentucky Department of Education, its board members would be appointed by the governor.

• Allow public universities and local school districts, if they choose, to establish, manage and oversee their own charter schools.

• Each charter school would have its own board, elected by voters, which would be responsible for overseeing and managing its own particular school.

Currently 40 states allow communities to establish charter schools, including all states that border Kentucky except for West Virginia. Montell says his bill takes into account all the lessons learned by other states in allowing for charter schools, making the proposal one of the most comprehensive in the nation.

"All of us have grown up in public schools. Just because charter schools may look or operate a little differently from what we're used to, it doesn't mean that the educational opportunities are any less valid that those offered by the traditional public schools," Montell added. "What it does mean is that charter schools will allow us to do more innovative things to improve the level of education for our children, and once again establish Kentucky as a model for learning in the United States."

This from the American School Board Journal:

Traditional Schools Serve All Who Come

Woodrow Wilson High School in Camden, N.J...has not wilted in the face of [overwhelming] obstacles. It offers a vast array of services to students and their families, including a health clinic, family counseling, crisis counseling, tutoring programs, daycare for teen parents, and a well-attended Junior ROTC program. Principal Tyrone Richards, a Camden native, is by all accounts a dynamic principal. He has received awards from the district for his strong focus on reducing absenteeism, reforming suspension policies, and improving graduation.

The school also is doing a lot to personalize instruction. It offers a “bridge” program over the summer for rising ninth-graders and has a self-contained Ninth Grade Academy for about 300 freshmen. Two years ago, the academy created the Renaissance Program to honor students who have good attendance and behavior and are attaining a C average or better. Depending on their GPAs, students can earn Blue, Orange, Silver, or Gold cards to enter the program, which has its own club room.

Supports like the Renaissance Program are there for those who reach for them, but it’s clear from the graduation statistics that many do not or are incapable of doing so. But Richards and Camden school board President Susan Dunbar-Bey say the reported 57.5 percent graduation rate for 2009 exaggerates the dropout rate: It doesn’t account for students who move out of the district-- or out of the country to places like Puerto Rico. (About half the students are Hispanic, and nearly half are African American.)

And this:

Who Chooses Charter Schools?

It's not hard to understand why Marlene Gonzalez decided to take her son out of the Camden, N.J., school system. Young Christian was safe enough in his neighborhood elementary school, but his mother kept hearing of low test scores, student bullying, and occasional violence in the city middle and high schools he’d eventually be expected to attend.

Meanwhile, she’d heard talk of a charter school with an eight-hour school day and 200-day school year program that promoted extensive after-school activities, support for families, a safe and orderly school environment, smaller class sizes, and a goal of a 100 percent graduation rate and college placement for all.

It was just the educational setting Gonzalez wanted for her son. So she applied to the LEAP Academy University Charter School. After four years on its waiting list, she got the call for Christian to enroll-- and not a minute too soon, in her mind.

“One of my worries was him going into middle school,” she says. “The schools within Camden are tough.”

Not just tough-- but troubled. With a high unemployment rate and an average household income of less than half of the state average, Camden is a profoundly poor and struggling city-- and its schools pay the price for the social woes that surround its children. Take Camden High, for example, which once was named one of the most “persistently dangerous” schools in New Jersey.

More than 60 percent of its students never graduate, and only 42.6 percent test as proficient on the state’s high school language arts exam, while only 19.4 percent score as well on the math exam.

Ironically, Gonzalez admits, her son was doing well at his local elementary school-- and might have fared well academically at one of the high schools. But she wasn’t going to chance it. Not when a charter school seemed to offer a better choice.

And this:

School Choice: Who Gets Left Behind?

How can we fix low-performing schools?

It’s been the question on educators’ minds for decades, and solutions have been elusive. However, since the passage of No Child Left Behind almost a decade ago, the pressure to improve student achievement has only intensified at the federal level and in the eyes of the public.

One solution touted is charter schools, which receive taxpayer dollars and have greater flexibility in staffing, curriculum, and fundraising while facing the same accountability as traditional public schools. U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan has urged states with caps on charters to raise them, and many have complied in an effort to access the much-desired Race to the Top funds.

The broader debate about charters is playing out in the public sphere. A media blitz that started this fall-- from the documentary “Waiting for Superman,” to NBC’s “Education Nation,” to Oprah Winfrey’s two shows on school reform-- has all but anointed charters as the future (perhaps the only viable future) for public education.

Are charters the answer?

Studies show that most perform no better than regular public schools, and that many do far worse. Some do excel, or at least perform marginally better than the traditional schools, but this very success raises a host of additional questions that school leaders must confront: Do they cull the best performers from the regular public schools, leaving the remaining students worse off than before? And, if so, is this a proper trade-off for giving at least some families more options?

This from the School Administrator:

The Central Office in a Decentralized System

As the charter school movement has come to scale within the United States, it poses new questions about how to govern public education. By next year in New Orleans, an estimated seven in 10 children will attend charter schools. With a significant rural contingent, charter schools are no longer just an urban phenomenon. The rapid growth of charters nationally will likely accelerate in the next few years as several states recently raised or eliminated charter school caps. Their expansion begs the question: What is the role of a school district in a decentralized environment where a majority or even all of its public schools are charter schools?

Partly in response to the growth in charter schools, Paul Hill, director of the Center on Reinventing Public Education, coined the term “portfolio district” to describe a school district that authorizes and manages diverse providers of public schooling —
district-run or externally led traditional schools, alternative schools, small schools within schools, and cyber or charter schools.

In concept, a portfolio district would act like a fund manager overseeing a portfolio of investments. A school district would establish performance expectations and foster differentiation among its schools to serve various segments of its market. And just as a fund manager sells underperforming stocks, a portfolio district will close failing schools, allowing for new ones to take their place...

Hat tip to KSBA