Proposed Charter School Board Faces Test in Senate | Eastern North Carolina Now

   Publisher's note: The author of this fine report, Dan Way, is an associate editor of the Carolina Journal, John Hood Publisher.

Defenders of traditional schools wonder why independent board needed

    RALEIGH     State Sen. Gladys Robinson is posing a question that has been popular among charter school advocates for years.

    "If we're going to say we can have charter schools, why isn't the state supplying the funds" to operate them properly, the Guilford County Democrat asked.

    Robinson was part of a unanimous vote in the Senate Appropriations/Base Budget Committee last week to approve Senate Bill 337.

    The measure would establish an 11-member state Charter Schools Board to oversee the state's growing number of charter schools and operate independently of the State Board of Education. The bill is scheduled today for a Senate floor vote.

    After the committee meeting, Robinson's comments were more of a critical challenge and admonition to Republican lawmakers than an affirming plea.

    "I went to segregated schools in Georgia," said Robinson, who is black. Charter schools are "just like the old segregated schools. ... This state is saying, and the leadership is saying, 'We're going to have charter schools.' Then fund them. And don't fund them at the expense of public schools that are already functioning."

    Robinson was among several Democrats who peppered bill sponsor Sen. Jerry Tillman, R-Randolph, with questions during committee debate on creating a Charter Schools Board.

    The line of questioning mostly involved longstanding complaints by traditional public schools supporters about charter schools not being required to provide meals, transportation, and certified teachers.

    "The parents choose those schools knowing whether they have transportation. Many of them do. Knowing whether they offer school food service. Many of them do. They select those schools knowing what the situation is," Tillman said at one point in the questioning. "The marketplace is at work."

    State education officials are keeping a close watch on the legislation. Joel Medley, director of the state Office of Charter Schools, attended last week's committee meeting with the State Board of Education's legislative liaison.

    "The key question is, is this group going to be constitutional. There's never really been true litigation on that piece," Medley said following the meeting. "The state board is the constitutional authority that oversees all education. [S.B. 337] is going to be segmenting out a piece of that educational oversight" and giving it to a separate authority.

    Although it would require a three-quarters vote of State Board of Education members to veto Charter Schools Board decisions, "that's higher than what it requires to overturn a veto in the chambers of the General Assembly," Medley said.

    "So we're not sure" about the legality of that provision, he said, and if that supermajority requirement is lessened, "then in essence we have what is currently in place with an advisory board."

    The state Department of Public Instruction also is concerned that "if you want to develop collaboration between LEAs [local education agencies, or school districts] and charter schools, we think that is best done through the State Board of Education," Medley said.

    "There's one key question we're trying to understand. What problem does this fix or issue does it prevent?" he said.

    The State Board of Education has reviewed 90 charter school applications and approved 32 since the 100-school cap was lifted in 2011, he said.

    "If there's a narrative that the state board is anti-charter, I don't think the facts bear that out," Medley said. With Gov. Pat McCrory recently appointing six new members to the State Board of Education, Medley wondered why "this new board [doesn't] get an opportunity to do anything" before its charter school oversight would be yanked.

    Tillman said during committee debate there is nothing surprising about S.B. 337.

    "This one gets back to the original intent of the charter legislation, and that was to set up charter schools to be administered by a Charter Schools Board to oversee their policies," Tillman said.

    Sen. Dan Blue, D-Wake, raised concerns about the bill's lack of requirement for charter schools to do criminal background checks of staff.

    Tillman countered that such checks are not required for other public schools. "We don't have a state law now that requires ... any state entity, to do a background check. Public schools, universities, community colleges. This simply allows the board to make those calls as it sees fit," he said.

    "I'm not opposed to background checks. Nearly every charter school I've talked to does them," he said. It is possible that a background provision for all public schools might be sought during floor debate on the bill, he said, encouraging Blue to submit an amendment to that effect if he wanted.

    Robinson was unhappy that the bill does not require teachers at charter schools to have state licensure and certification, and asked whether they at least would have a bachelor's degree in the subject area they teach. Licensure alone might not make a teacher better, but student performance improves when the teacher has a degree in the core subject being taught, she said.

    "That is a subject that academicians will debate," Tillman responded.

    "However, in Asheboro, we have a medical doctor [who] applied to teach a health occupations course at Asheboro High School, and she wasn't licensed to do that," Tillman said. "Certainly, she was qualified to do that under every standard in the world except [DPI's]. So they said no."

    He said a pharmacist in Archdale who wanted to teach a chemistry class at Trinity High School was rejected for the same reason.

    "He had more chemistry than every chemistry teacher" in the school, Tillman said.

    One of the motivations behind charter schools is to be able to innovate and implement nonstandard practices rather than be tangled in bureaucratic red tape, he said.

    "If folks will go out and raise money, and set up nonprofits, and put their livelihoods on the line to build a better program for our children, they will be responsible," Tillman said.

    "Public schools, you're doing it this way. We'll put the scores up and compare them. Let them have the opportunity to sink or swim under these rules and regulations that are designed to give them creativity and experimental models," Tillman said.

    Not providing transportation or meals "could become a barrier to parents who want to have a choice of sending their students there," said Sen. Earline Parmon, D-Forsyth.

    "That's true," Tillman said. He noted earlier in the meeting that state law hamstrings charter schools from those amenities.

    "It takes $250,000 to $1 million to set up a certified kitchen, and since we don't get any capital funding for charter schools, many are unable to do this," he said.
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