THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, September 22, 1996 TAG: 9609220022
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY ANNE SAITA, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 144 lines
Throughout northeastern North Carolina, public schools are being erected and expanded to eliminate the congested classrooms and mobile units now common on many campuses.
Private and parochial schools, too, are prospering from the growing number of children and dissatisfied public-school parents.
Now a new form of education is coming to North Carolina that will allow parents and nonprofit organizations to start their own schools with public funds.
Beginning next fall, up to 100 charter schools will open across the state - including possible upstarts or conversions in the Albemarle area.
``Charter schools restore power to parents and authority to teachers,'' said Vernon Robinson, a former Winston-Salem State University professor who helped draft the charter school legislation passed this summer.
Critics say the program comes as school systems already are adjusting to new initiatives to improve public education.
``We already have a full platter. And we now have to divert time away from other activities aimed at improving our existing schools,'' said Emmett Floyd, an East Carolina University administrator who recently spoke on charter schools during a legal issues seminar in Elizabeth City.
Charter schools essentially act like individual school districts, setting policies, adopting curricula and receiving the same local and state per-pupil allocations as a locality's other public schools.
The schools hire and fire staff, which can include non-certified teachers and administrators. They must hold classes for 180 days like other public schools. But they are not held to 5-1/2 hours of daily instruction.
While charter schools cannot buy property with public money, they can use the money to lease buildings or space - including empty shopping centers, trailers and even classrooms within a public school already in use.
It's also possible for current facilities to be converted to charter schools if enough parents and personnel want it.
The charter schools also must provide transportation - something the state does not mandate for current public school systems.
In turn, charter schools must prove they're working by meeting a pre-determined level of academic achievement.
Failure to meet those annual standards can result in a charter revocation.
``For the first time, schools that don't perform can go out of business,'' Robinson said.
Charter schools must accept the first 65 children who apply and include at-risk youth. If applicants exceed availability, enrollment is determined by lot.
Twenty-five states and the District of Columbia now have charter school legislation in place.
Nationally, sixty-three percent of charter school students are minorities, according to an education journal article titled ``Charter Schools In Action: What Have We Learned?''
Across the country, 81 percent of charter school students previously were enrolled in public schools, compared to 8 percent from private schools and 2 percent that were home-schooled.
The remainder were previous dropouts or new residents, the article stated.
Almost every charter school in the country has a waiting list. Parents often camp out for days before a registration, hoping for a slot on enrollment lists.
Robinson believes the schools are popular because they are better able to meet parents' ``modest demands'' in public education.
``They want safe and orderly schools. They don't want their kids beaten up in the bathroom,'' he said. ``They want what we call the `American Dream' education so their kids will do a little better in life than they did.
``They don't want their values to be trampled on. And they want money spent in the classroom,'' said Robinson, a Republican running for State Superintendent of Public Instruction against Democrat Mike Ward.
Ward is the current executive director of the North Carolina Standards Board for Public School Administration.
Robinson left his university post to head the North Carolina Education Reform Foundation, which led the three-year battle to begin charter schools.
Teachers attracted to charter schools say they like the schools' freedom of instruction, autonomy from local and state rules and regulations, family atmosphere and sensible management, Floyd said.
``There's not a single one of those things that we shouldn't already have in our public schools,'' Floyd told about 60 school officials at Thursday's Legal Issues Institute, sponsored by the Regional Education Service Alliance and E.C.U.
Staff turnover, he added, is almost identical at both charter schools and conventional public schools.
Charter school admission requirements essentially preclude single-gender or single-race schools. Within a year, the school membership must reflect school populations at other county schools.
Charter schools also cannot be affiliated with a non-public sectarian school or religious institution.
Floyd said ministers were among 150 people who attended an informational meeting on charter schools last week in Greenville.
``A number of religious leaders have looked at this as a way to start a church school and were probably shocked when they heard that,'' Floyd said.
Advocates of the new system say it provides parents an educational option without possible financial hardship. Charter schools cannot charge tuition, though they can set fee schedules for programs and school supplies, such as books.
They also establish dress codes and discipline policies.
While urban areas are favored to attract the majority of first-year applicants, some say charter school enthusiasts also are eyeing areas like Tyrrell, Dare and Currituck counties.
These areas are attractive because of the large local or state per-pupil expenditures that would follow students who enroll in charter schools.
``They're gonna look around and say `Where can I go to get the most money?','' Floyd told educators.
Charter schools can be approved by three bodies: a school within the University of North Carolina system, local school boards and the State Board of Education.
Floyd said local school boards will likely be responsible for a majority of applicants, who have until Nov. 1 to turn in their requests.
To prevent local boards from stonewalling, all applications not locally acted upon by Feb. 1 will automatically be sent to the state board for approval.
Charter schools, Floyd admits, will likely not be greeted enthusiastically by school boards and administrators in jeopardy of losing students - and funding.
``There's an issue of turfdom here,'' he said. ``These are our kids that they're trying to take away from us.''
At the same time, Floyd doesn't believe there will be many charter schools in North Carolina next year, mainly because of the extensive application process and early deadline.
``It (the application) is not something that you'll sit down and fill out at the dinner table and turn in the next day,'' he said.
The early deadline also concerns Robinson, who has lobbied for an extension. He believes people should have the same amount of time - two months - to complete the application as it took to draft it. The current period is 44 days.
A component of the application that may prevent charter schools from forming in small school districts, like many in the Albemarle, is an impact statement prepared by the public schools. The formation of a charter school cannot place existing schools in serious financial jeopardy.
``The one thing that will hurt the northeast for people who want to start a charter school is the sparcity of the population,'' Floyd said.
That could protect public schools in places like Tyrrell County, since removing 65 children from a 600-student system could create a serious financial blow to the existing schools.
But larger districts, such as Dare and Elizabeth City-Pasquotank, are more vulnerable, he said.
``You're not going to start a school in Ocracoke,'' Floyd said. ``It's not gonna happen. They've got 90 students to start with; it already is a charter school.
``Charter schools will be more successful - and there will be more of them - in populated areas of the state. In some places that have a serious problem with overcrowding, they might actually be welcomed.'' by CNB