
{"id":27677,"date":"2012-09-06T10:04:25","date_gmt":"2012-09-06T14:04:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/?p=27677"},"modified":"2012-09-06T10:04:25","modified_gmt":"2012-09-06T14:04:25","slug":"charter-school-a-bad-idea-foes-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/2012\/09\/06\/charter-school-a-bad-idea-foes-say\/","title":{"rendered":"Charter school a bad idea, foes say"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By Taylor Sisk<\/strong><br \/>\n<em>Staff Writer<\/em><\/p>\n<p>One of the primary original objectives behind the implementation of charter schools in North Carolina was to help generate innovation in the classroom. And while, as a rule, that hasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t happened, hardly anyone is saying the entire effort should be scrapped.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve learned that you don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t throw the baby out with the bathwater,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Carrboro Board of Aldermen member Randee Haven-O\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Donnell. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Some charter schools really do a fine job of teaching.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>But when a proposed charter school is introduced to an informed, progressive-minded community, one that, arguably, values education above all else, questions and concerns are going to be raised \u00e2\u20ac\u201c about, for example, the school administration\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s accountability and transparency, how the school will meet students\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 needs, how tax dollars will be spent and how innovation will be employed to meet objectives. <\/p>\n<p>The State Board of Education is scheduled to make decisions today (Thursday) on approval of 25 proposed charter schools that have been recommended by the board\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Public Charter School Advisory Council. Among those is the Howard and Lillian Lee Scholars Charter School, a K-8 school that under a pending proposal would be located in Claremont South, a development planned for the south side of Homestead Road in Carrboro.<\/p>\n<p>If the board approves the school, its administrators will enter into a planning and training program with the state, with a decision for final charter approval coming no later than next March. <\/p>\n<p>If given the nod, the school would then open its doors for the 2013-14 school year.<\/p>\n<p>The Lee school\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s charter application doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t provide a great many details about the nature of its curricula or the support services it will offer. Its stated objectives are to help close the racial and economic achievement gaps, prepare students for high school and college preparatory programs and alleviate overcrowding in the elementary schools. <\/p>\n<p>The school will be co-managed with for-profit, Michigan-based National Heritage Academies (NHA), which operates more than 70 charter schools across the country, including five in North Carolina.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153It is important to note that the North Carolina State Board of Education is still considering charter applications, including the application for Howard and Lillian Lee Scholars Charter School,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Nick Paradiso, NHA vice president of government relations, in an email response to The Citizen.\u00c2\u00a0\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Until a charter is granted, policies and procedures for the school will not be developed.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, members of the proposed school\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s board of directors, headed by Angela Lee, daughter of longtime community and education leaders Howard and Lillian Lee, continue to keep a low profile. The Citizen\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s requests for interviews and responses to questions have gone unanswered.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153If you want to be part of a community, you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve got to communitize your conversation,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Haven-O\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Donnell said last week, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153and that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not happening.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d  <\/p>\n<p><strong>Accountability issues<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>North Carolina law allows charter schools to operate independent of local school boards. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Charters in North Carolina are in no way accountable to their local board of education,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Mia Burroughs, chair of the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools Board of Education. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153If citizens are unhappy with any decisions made by a charter board, there are no local elected officials who can be held accountable,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Our district\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s relationship with Lee Charter will be based only on our respective willingness to keep the focus on what is best for kids.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>Asked what channels parents would be granted to bring grievances or offer suggestions in setting policies, Paradiso wrote, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Parents are an active part of all National Heritage Academies\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 schools. Specific procedures will not be determined until after a charter is granted.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>Charter schools create a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153whole new accountability problem,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Matt Ellinwood, a policy advocate for the N.C. Justice Center\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Education and Law Project. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Where does a teacher go if she has a problem?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d asked Ellinwood. The first step would presumably be to go to the board of directors, though board members aren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t required by the charter school act to live in the community, or even in North Carolina. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153And if that doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t work, where does she go next? To the out-of-state company?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153In a public school, if you have a problem you take it through the regular channels,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Ellinwood said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a clear path of how to deal with things.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Not so with charters.<\/p>\n<p>Charter school employees can be fired by the board without receiving a hearing. The schools are not required to participate in the state employees\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 retirement or health plans, and, according to Paradiso, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153At this time, none of National Heritage Academies\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 schools in North Carolina participate in the state employee retirement system or the state health plan.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>While in traditional public schools, all teachers must be licensed, 50 percent of charter middle and high school teachers and 25 percent of elementary teachers can be unlicensed.<\/p>\n<p>The schools are not required to provide teacher workdays.<\/p>\n<p>As for state oversight, the Office of Charter School\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s has two full-time staff members and four consultants, while the state is in the process of adding 33 schools to the existing 100.<\/p>\n<p>A U.S. Department of Education study found that \u00e2\u20ac\u0153many charter school authorizers lack the capacity to adequately oversee charter school operations, often lack authority to implement formal sanctions, and rarely invoke the authority they do have to revoke or not renew a charter.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>In North Carolina, full evaluation of schools isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t conducted till the fifth year.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153It bothers me that the state doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t follow through on its promise to keep track of these schools and make sure they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re doing what they said they were going to do,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Natasha Bowen, an associate professor in the UNC School of Social Work who has researched North Carolina\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s charter schools. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153In their applications, they talk about a goal of reducing the achievement gap. Ten or 12 years later, you don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t see that happening, but there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s nothing done to change that.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Closing the gap?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Bowen\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s research indicates that NHA has shown little evidence to suggest it will help close the racial and economic achievement gap in the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools (CHCCS).<\/p>\n<p>The five NHA-managed schools in North Carolina are Forsyth Academy in Winston-Salem, Greensboro Academy, PreEminent Charter School in Raleigh, Queens Grant Community School in Mint Hill and Research Triangle Charter Academy in Durham.<\/p>\n<p>A look at the math and reading end-of-grade (EOG) test scores for 2010-11 for those schools shows an average of 83.1 percent of white students passing, compared with 95 percent of white students in the CHCCS schools, and 48.1 percent of black students passing in NHA schools, compared with 58.8 in CHCCS schools.<\/p>\n<p>NHA-managed schools in the state showed an average of 70.7 percent of non-economically disadvantaged and 56.7 of economically disadvantaged students passing EOG exams, while the numbers in CHCCS were 95 percent and 56.4 percent. The gap is narrower in the NHA schools, but the overall average is higher in CHCCS.<\/p>\n<p>The percentages for EOG scores for whites and blacks at traditional public schools statewide are very similar to the NHA-school percentages. Statewide, 82.8 of non-economically disadvantaged students and 53.3 percent of those economically disadvantaged passed EOG tests. <\/p>\n<p>Of equal concern to those who wish to take a measured approach to charter schools is the potential for resegregation. Research conducted on North Carolina charter schools by Helen Ladd of Duke University\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Sanford School of Public Policy found that charter schools increase racial segregation. <\/p>\n<p>Blacks tend to select schools that have a higher percentage of blacks and whites select schools that have a higher percentage of whites \u00e2\u20ac\u201c though not at the same rate. Ladd\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s research indicated that blacks prefer charter schools that have around a 50\/50 split, whereas whites prefer schools that are less than 20 percent black.<\/p>\n<p>Of the 100 charter schools operating in the state in 2010, Ladd found that 37 were more than 80 percent white and 26 were less than 20 percent white.<\/p>\n<p>In the 2010-11 school year, of the five schools NHA oversees in North Carolina, two were more than 80 percent white and two were more than 80 percent black.<\/p>\n<p><strong>No incentive to innovate<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>And what of innovation?<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s hard to say what [NHA] is bringing to the table that fits with what charter schools are supposed to do,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Ellinwood said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know what they do that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s new or innovative; I haven\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t been able to find that in the application.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>In January, the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools Board of Education wrote a letter to the state board sharing its concern that the Lee school would \u00e2\u20ac\u0153divert $4.6 million or more in scarce resources at a time of severely constrained budgets.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>Removing this money from the traditional public schools, Ellinwood said, detracts from a focus on making those schools better. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153We need to be looking at what\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s working in the good schools and how to make it work in the poorer ones,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said. <\/p>\n<p>Ellinwood believes the for-profit model hinders the impetus for innovation: Beyond, and in keeping with, the mandate to make money, there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s little incentive to share ideas.<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u00e2\u20ac\u02dcUh-oh\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 feeling<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Sending taxpayer dollars to an out-of-state for-profit corporation to educate our children doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t sit well with many Chapel Hill-Carrboro residents.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Neither the Lee Charter School nor NHA is publicly accountable to community residents as to how they use our tax dollars,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Miriam Thompson, a longtime NAACP member and grandmother of two children in the public-school system. (The local chapter of the NAACP has opposed the Lee school.)<\/p>\n<p>What support services \u00e2\u20ac\u201c afterschool care, tutoring, etc. \u00e2\u20ac\u201c the school will provide is uncertain. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Services are based upon the needs of the student population,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d NHA\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Paradiso wrote. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153These items will not be determined until after a charter is granted and students are enrolled.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>Of further concern is the possibility that students from outside the district will be admitted to the school.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153That means that people who are in the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City School district or Orange County, who are paying taxes, whose money is supposed to be going for local schools, could be paying for children who are coming from, I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know, maybe north Chatham,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Haven-O\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Donnell said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Who knows?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153We will not know the students\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 school or district of origin until applications are accepted,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Paradiso wrote. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Applications will not be accepted until Lee Scholars receives a charter.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>For Bowen, the performance data and as-yet-unanswered questions are \u00e2\u20ac\u0153enough to make you ask why we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re doing this \u00e2\u20ac\u201c give us some reasons.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153If you look at the track record of charter schools in general in this state, they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re not doing what they were supposed to do. \u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 And then to have one that for 10 or 12 years hasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t done a great job in five different locations in the state \u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 I just don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t get it.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153To me, there shouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t be things that feel uncomfortable,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Haven-O\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Donnell, an educator for 37 years. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s like I tell my students, if you have that \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcuh-oh\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 feeling, you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve got to respect it.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Hardly anyone is saying the entire effort for charter schools should be scrapped.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27677","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27677","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27677"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27677\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27687,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27677\/revisions\/27687"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27677"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27677"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27677"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}