THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, February 6, 1997 TAG: 9702060010
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A16 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Opinion
SOURCE: By PHILLIP A. HAMILTON
LENGTH: 74 lines
For the fourth year in a row, the House Education Committee has defeated legislation that would have given local school boards the option of creating new, innovative alternative educational programs, known as charter schools. Under the proposed legislation, the academic and curriculum standards for such an alternative program would have met or exceeded those of current public-school programs. The legislation prohibited discriminatory practices, required total local control, required licensed teaching personnel and protected the constitutional authority of the local school board. The legislation even required that half of the charter schools approved by a local school division had to be for at-risk students who might not succeed in a conventional educational setting. Even with these high standards and guidelines to protect the integrity of public education, the committee voted 11-11, which defeated the legislation.
Again, this year, opposition came from the Virginia School Boards Association, the Virginia Association of School Superintendents and the NAACP. Absent from the voices of opposition was any specific discussion of the legislation. It was as if these groups were reluctant to discuss the substance of the legislation. It was easier for the educational establishment to attack a concept with quips like ``this dog won't hunt'' and ``I have not come to praise the bill, but to bury it.'' Then there were irreprehensible charges that supporters of charter schools were racially motivated and promoting the doctrine of ``separate but equal.'' The racial attacks even included the promise of retaliation for supporting the legislation when the NAACP state president stated, ``If you vote against us, we're going to come after you.'' These are the same groups that claim to want quality education for all children but who resist the high standards and protections in my charter-school proposal.
Who, then, supports my charter-school proposal? Over the years, several individual school boards and superintendents have publicly endorsed my proposal. For the past two years, the Virginia Congress of PTA has been a strong advocate for my proposal. In 1996, the Virginia Alliance for Youth publicly endorsed my proposal. The Virginia Education Association has a position supporting innovative programs such as charter schools. The Professional Teachers Association publicly endorsed charter schools. Then, there are other individual public schoolteachers who have not been afraid to voice their support for an opportunity to participate in developing creative and innovative new programs for students who are often overlooked by the current programs.
The opponents of my charter-school proposal are the same people who attacked or blamed Gov. George F. Allen for his cautious acceptance of federal funding through Goals 2000. They decried the loss of these funds that they claimed were so badly needed for Virginia's public schools. They said it was important that taxes sent to the federal government by Virginians should be returned to Virginia's public schools and not distributed to other states.
By opposing charter schools, these same people are now denying Virginia's public schools that voluntarily would like to create charter schools access to millions of dollars of federal funds generated for Virginia taxpayers. Many of these opponents will beg and plead with state government for more and more money while denying the opportunity for Virginia's public schools to apply for federal education funds available through the Public Charter Schools legislation. Unfortunately, they want more money for the same programs that have failed to initiate any substantive standard of accountability within the existing public schools.
Those who clamored for Goals 2000 funding should now explain their vote against and opposition to the charter-schools proposal I have submitted. Because the standards required by my legislation exceed those at the federal level, there should be no tolerance for hypocrisy in anyone's position. If Goals 2000 funding was important to the public schools, then public charter-school money is also important. Until Virginia allows local school divisions the authority to create charter schools according to the standards set forth in my legislation, this money will be distributed to the other 25 states and the District of Columbia that have permitted the creation of alternative schools, known as charter schools.
KEYWORDS: ANOTHER VIEW