Should we first be sure charter schools are better for children?
The Rand Corporation just completed one of the more comprehensive studies of charter schools. They analyzed hundreds of charter schools in eight states. What did Rand learn? Brian Gill, the primary author of the study said, “In some sense, it suggests we know less than we thought we did about charter schools.” As charters are rare in Virginia, I suspect that that is the case for many Virginians as well.
Most significantly, as the March 18 edition of Education Week reported, the Rand study concluded that, “When researchers looked at charter secondary schools, they found few differences in learning gains between students in charters and regular public schools.”
First, what is a charter school? Education Week says “Charter schools are public schools that are given more autonomy than most public schools to make decisions about curriculum, instruction, budgeting, and, in some cases, staffing.”
Charter schools haven’t flourished in Virginia because our school boards already have the autonomy to create specialty schools. Just in the Richmond area we have schools that specialize in arts, engineering, communication, languages, humanities, technology, International Baccalaureate, IT, leadership/government and global economics, military, and science/mathematics and technology. We have governor’s schools, magnet schools, centers for the gifted and the list goes on and on. Virginia school boards, unlike those in states where charters have flourished, don’t need charter legislation to allow flexibility. Our school boards have great autonomy and flexibility. They are free to innovate, and that they do!
When candidate McDonnell asserts that, “As Governor I will ensure that alternative methods of establishing charter schools are put in place, such as allowing the State Board of Education to approve applications,” he ignores two facts.
First, He who pays the piper calls the tune. When the state, for example, pays only 13.02% of the cost of supporting the schools in Falls Church, should the state Board of Education be able to dictate to Falls Church the creation of a school? Virginia localities provide the lion share of the funding for our schools, so this decision should be made on the local level.
Second, he ignores the Constitutional role of the local schools boards. Article VIII, Section 7 reads, in part, as follows: “The supervision of schools in each school division shall be vested in a school board ….”
Virginia is blessed with a strong system of public education. It is one we should constantly strive to improve. Continued experimentation with charter schools should be part of that effort, but undermining the established role of local school boards by having a state that is not funding its fair share of the cost of public education dictate to local school boards the establishment of charter schools seems unwarranted and unwise.
The first charter schools were established in Minnesota in 1992; however, the jury is still out in regard to their success. Until we are sure that they have a positive impact on student achievement, it seems wise to stay the current course which allows local experimentation with this and other educational innovations.
Robley Jones is Director of Government Relations for the Virginia Education Association
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