Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, February 3, 1995 TAG: 9502030027
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-11 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BEVERLY H. SGRO
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Today Gov. Allen and I are working hard to turn the promise of meaningful reform of our education system into reality.
The governor has made clear that we should not merely tinker around the edges of an education system that has clearly been failing too many of our children. Instead, we are taking seriously the people's mandate to bring about revolutionary and truly innovative reform by focusing our schools on academic excellence and returning control of education to parents and communities, where it belongs.
An important tool in achieving this goal is the concept of charter schools. That is why the governor's Commission on Champion Schools, a diverse commission of 53 Virginians from many different perspectives and walks of life, has recommended that Virginia allow the formation of charter schools.
A charter school is a public school that operates under a results-based contract, called a ``charter.'' Charter schools have increased flexibility from state regulations and laws in exchange for having to produce better academic results for their students.
Once a local school board decides to grant an application for a charter school, the school receives a waiver from all state regulations and laws, except those dealing with safety, health, civil rights and the Standards of Learning for English, math, science and social studies. Of course, all charter schools are subject to the Virginia Standards of Quality, and they are also bound by all federal statutes and regulations.
Charter schools promote increased academic rigor and high expectations for students as a result of the flexibility and accountability that are the hallmarks of charter schools. In addition, the increased flexibility and freedom from state regulations allow more innovation in meeting the needs of students with special needs, at-risk students, and students with particular academic interests. The possibilities for charter schools are almost endless.
Charter schools promote real accountability. In exchange for flexibility, the charter school promises to meet the Standards of Learning and the additional goals it sets for itself in its charter. The school must also lay out plans for an annual assessment to determine whether it is progressing toward meeting its mission and goals for student performance.
When a charter school fails to improve the results it achieves for its students and fails to meet its goals, it does not just keep on operating. Instead, it loses its charter and ceases to exist. That is real accountability.
Charter schools provide greater flexibility in personnel matters. For instance, a well-qualified engineer might be hired to teach math. A retired conductor of a local symphony could be hired to teach music. The charter school could also hire retired officers from the military who are well-qualified in a particular field. These people with great experience are generally not permitted to teach under our current system without state certification.
Charter schools open up the process. Any group of individuals or entity, including any currently operating public school, can submit an application for a charter school to the local school board. Of course, the application must convince a school board that the proposed charter school has a sufficiently good plan, mission and strategy for accomplishing its goals before the school board will give its approval. The decision of whether to grant the charter would be left up to that local school board. Richmond or Washington could not intervene to overturn its decision.
This requirement for school board approval of the charter also results in accountability at the beginning of the charter school process - as well as the accountability for results that must occur once the charter has been granted. That said, we hope every current public school in Virginia that wants to be a charter school will become one - so long as the school demonstrates a well-developed plan for achieving academic excellence and submits to the accountability that is part of being a charter school.
Charter schools would receive all of the per-pupil share of the state and local Standards of Quality funding for the school division in which the charter school is located. Any additional ``aspirational'' funding granted to public schools may also be granted to charter schools at the discretion of the local school board.
Some have claimed that private and parochial schools will apply to become charter schools and drain money away from the public school system. This charge ignores the facts. Any entity that becomes a charter school must become a public school. Public schools must be nonsectarian schools. Nonsectarian private schools are highly unlikely to apply to become charter schools because, as public schools, they would become subject to many state laws and regulations and to all federal laws and regulations.
Few private schools would even consider giving up the freedom they now have from most of those laws and regulations. In reality, such a charge is merely another scare tactic by the special-interest groups and bureaucrats who are simply afraid of innovation and of giving more power to parents and localities. They know this means they will lose some of the considerable centralized power they now have.
Charter schools promote greater parental involvement in schools. Parents will make the choice whether to send their children to charter schools, and parents will have a particular stake in the school they have chosen for their child. There is not only the feeling but also the reality of parental ownership of charter schools. Parents are usually heavily represented on the board of directors or council that governs a charter school.
In addition, more parental choice of schools brings about competition among all public schools - thereby providing incentives for increased performance and innovation at other nearby public schools. Increased competition benefits not just the charter school but also other public schools with which it competes.
Competition within the public-school system will lessen the stagnation that comes from control of the present public-school system monopoly by central-system bureaucrats. Free-market forces are important to Americans in many other areas of our lives. Adding choices and competition to our educational system will bring improvement to one of the most important areas - our children's education. We already have so many choices in where we live, where we shop and even what car we buy. Shouldn't we have at least some real choices among the public schools where we educate our children?
The time has come to try new ideas, to return more power to parents and the teachers in the classroom, and to provide more choices and healthy competition among our public schools. To those who claim to care about education but really care more about maintaining their current power, we say, ``Join in our commitment and efforts for real reform or get out of the way!'' The children of Virginia deserve no less than the bold reforms that will provide them with a quality academic education worthy of their futures.
Beverly H. Sgro is secretary of education for Virginia.
by CNB