DATE: Friday, November 14, 1997             TAG: 9711140653

SECTION: FRONT                   PAGE: A13  EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY LEDYARD KING, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: RICHMOND                          LENGTH:   67 lines

ENDORSEMENT GIVES NEW LIFE TO DEBATED CHARTER SCHOOLS PLAN

In a sign of growing support for charter schools, a panel of Virginia lawmakers is calling for the General Assembly to consider the alternative schools in the coming session.

The endorsement of the bipartisan Commission on the Future of Public Educationon Thursday is evidence that approval of these publicly financed but privately run institutions is no longer a matter of if, but when.

``I sense that the general feeling is we're going to have charter schools and see how it works,'' said Sen. Stanley C. Walker, D-Norfolk, co-chair of the Senate Finance Committee and a member of the commission.

Del. Philip A. Hamilton, a Newport News Republican and prime charter supporter, has drafted legislation for this coming session that would allow local school boards the option of establishing two charter schools. His moves to enact charters have died the past four years.

The new bill will essentially be the same as what was defeated narrowly last year. But Hamilton believes it's already got a better shot at passage.

What has changed?

The House Education Committee that killed his bill 11-11 last year is not the same. Two charter opponents, Dels. Shirley F. Cooper, D-Yorktown, and George E. Lovelace, D-Vienna, lost re-election bids. It's not clear who would take their places on the committee.

The Senate is now effectively in Republican hands, with John H. Hager's election as lieutenant governor. Hager said he supports charters.

Hamilton, a central office administrator for the Newport News public school system, believes lawmakers better understand that charters could serve as catalysts for innovative educational ideas.

``It's not the two-headed demon that others have portrayed,'' he said.

Charters are schools that are open and free to all public school students. Private organizations run them and may develop unique curricula for the students they serve. Charter operators would receive the same money that public schools receive, depending on the number of students who enroll.

Although charter schools exist in more than 20 states, Virginia lawmakers have eyed them with suspicion, fearing they would become little more than publicly funded private schools catering only to an elite class of students.

But Walker is among a growing body of legislators warming up to charters - as long as they are created for all students and follow basic academic standards.

The Norfolk senator said his doubts about charters have eased somewhat after seeing how other states have been able to regulate charters to keep them from becoming exclusionary.

The commission is recommending that they be filled via a lottery system (paving the way for federal grant money) and that they not be exempt from standards of quality, accreditation and learning that all public schools in Virginia must meet.

Charters were just one of 35 preliminary recommendations the Committee on the Future of Public Education made as part of its yearlong study on ways to improve the Commonwealth's 135 public school divisions. A final vote is set for Dec. 11.

The recommendations also call for strengthening teacher training, dangling financial rewards for schools and teachers that perform well and expanding preschool programs statewide to serve students who need the enrichment.

The cost of the complete package could run into the hundreds of millions. Teacher training programs would cost as much as $35 million in the first year alone, said Del. William W. ``Ted'' Bennett Jr., D-Halifax, the commission's chairman. MEMO: A public hearing on the recommendations is scheduled for 7 p.m.

Monday at Bethel High School in Hampton. KEYWORDS: CHARTER SCHOOLS

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