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Contributors
K. Lloyd Billingsley - Contributor
[Courtesty of Pacific Research
Institute]
K. Lloyd
Billingsley is Editorial Director for the Pacific
Research Institute and has been widely published on topics
including on popular culture, defense policy, education reform,
and many other current policy issues. [go to Billingsley index]
 Ten
Years After: Progress and Opposition in Charter Schools
[K. Lloyd Billingsley] 7/17/03
In 1993 California began allowing
charter schools, deregulated schools within the government
system that gain freedom from most
regulations in return for meeting the goals of their founding
charter. According to a Rand study released June 30, charter
schools provide good news to a state that badly needs it.
Charter
School Operations and Performance: Evidence from California, requested by the state's Legislative Analyst's Office, finds
that charter schools keep pace or slightly outperform conventional
government schools in reading and math achievement. They
do this, however, with less funding, and with less experienced
teachers.
While schools that convert to charter status perform
about the same, start-up charter schools outperform conventional
government
schools in student test scores. The Rand study also found
that elementary charter schools have more instruction time
in fine
arts and foreign languages than conventional government
schools. Charter school teachers, though less likely to possess
a
credential, are more likely to participate in professional
development
such a mentoring programs.
Charter school students are
more likely to be African American and less likely to be Hispanic,
Asian, or white. The Rand
study's finding explodes the charge that charters would
become elitist
suburban academies. The predominance of African Americans
in these schools is another confirmation of the need
for alternatives
from the government system.
There are now about 400 charter
schools serving approximately 150,000 students in California,
not many in a state with
35 million people, more than seven million students,
and more
than 1,000
school districts. It should be recalled that the original
legislation allowed only 100 schools and that another
bill, backed by the
California Teachers Association, wanted only 50. If
charter schools can improve student achievement, as now seems
clear, it makes
little sense to limit their numbers. A case here in
the
capital shows why opposition remains.
Sacramento High
School was a low performing school that the local board shut
down. St. HOPE, non-profit
company
headed
by Sacramento
High graduate and former NBA star Kevin Johnson,
drafted a charter that would have divided the school up into
smaller academies.
Parental support proved strong, and donors included
local companies,
a private law school, UC Davis Medical Center, and
the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The school
would be
responsible
for
results and initially the teachers would not be union
members.
That is why the teacher union fought to block
a school that served the area's neediest students. The union
circulated horror stories
during the petition process, then went shopping for
a judge that would shut down the project on flimsy
and
dubious
grounds.
The
backers have appealed and are moving ahead.
The union
power play shows the lengths to which reactionary forces will
go to block reform and preserve the status
quo. In these
quarters, despite rhetoric to the contrary, the
welfare of students always takes a back seat to power and
control.
As the Rand study shows, charter schools
have made for some improvement. But it should be remembered
that charter
schools
were themselves
a response to increased demand for educational
choice. Legislators should make it easier for
charter schools
to thrive but work
toward full choice in education for all students
as a matter of basic civil rights.
copyright
2003 Pacific Research Institute
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