THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, December 29, 1994 TAG: 9412280016
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A12 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Letter
LENGTH: Short : 35 lines
Shortly after his election, Governor Allen released his Champion School Initiative and appointed the Governor's Commission on Champion Schools, which recently submitted its interim report.
This document contains a number of preliminary recommendations, the centerpiece being charter schools to address the decline in academic achievement and provide for greater parental and local involvement and choice in public schools.
If these schools can operate free of all division policies and state educational laws and regulations, to whom would they be accountable?
The report reads: ``Any person or entity may apply to organize a charter school.'' This is frightening. Could an existing private school apply for charter-school status and receive public tax dollars?
The report also says the State Board of Education should be able to grant the charter if the local school board denies a ``meritorious'' application a second time. What is a ``meritorious'' application?
The Virginia School Board Association Delegate Assembly in November voted overwhelmingly to oppose establishment of charter schools in Virginia. The VSBA believes, and I concur, that just as the use of vouchers and tuition credits attempts to use public tax funds to support private education, so do charter schools as proposed by the commission.
JAMES M. REEVES
Chesapeake, Dec. 23, 1994 by CNB