Choice nuggets: Charter school flexibility, public school selectivity and more

Editor’s note: ‘Choice nuggets’ is a new feature we introduced on Monday. It’s what we’re calling occasional platters of noteworthy items that may not merit a post by themselves.

Flexibility and the future of charter schools

While most school district officials oppose charter schools that have corporate ties, Nancy Beal, a Florida school district administrator who is resigning to run a new charter school for Charter School USA, says being part of a charter school system is a plus.

“They run such an efficient operation and do so much for teachers that the staff can concentrate on teaching,” Beal told the Bradenton Herald. “Public school teachers are mired in paperwork, but Charter Schools USA has all that in place for teachers. They’ve taken a lot of the load off of teachers so they can focus on teaching.”

The economy of scale means that in the future most charter schools will be part of larger charter school systems. How this impacts the autonomy of individual charter schools will determine the long-term value of the charter school movement. If charter school systems become as bureaucratic and authoritarian as traditional school districts, then the charter school movement will have failed.

Money talks in public schools

Competition for entrance into Miami-Dade County’s top magnet schools continues to intensify. The affluent community of Key Biscayne recently offered the school district millions of dollars if the district would give Key Biscayne students priority admission into the district’s renowned MAST Academy. But many non-Key Biscayne parents objected. Raul Sanchez de Varona, whose daughter is an incoming MAST freshman, told the Miami Herald, “What I was against all the time was preferential treatment to Key residents just because they willing to pay the School Board $10 million dollars.”

A compromise settlement will allow the original MAST Academy to maintain its lottery admission for students who meet its rigorous entrance requirements, while opening up a new branch campus for Key Biscayne residents. Guaranteeing Key Biscayne students access to the MAST Academy satisfies the town’s mayor, who argued that any other solution would create a “separate but unequal” education for his community’s students.

This story further debunks the myth that public schools must accept all students. It also illustrates how providing school choice for some families but not others is exacerbating the inequalities in publicly-funded education.

Not every community can cough up $10 million to address the separate-but-unequal education its children are receiving from the school district.

If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em

In an effort to halt the exodus of their students to charter schools, a few school districts are starting to create their own charter schools. Miami-Dade got the ball rolling last year, and now Broward County, Fla., is following suit. “We have lost so many students,” said Broward board Vice Chairwoman Laurie Rich Levinson. “We would be remiss if we don’t go after this market share.” Superintendent Robert Runcie added that, “Charter schools are going to continue to grow and proliferate in the district. Our customers are looking for choices.”

In Washington, D.C., district superintendent Kaya Henderson wants to implement a similar strategy. She wants the authority to create within-district charter schools as a way to give individual district schools more autonomy. “What we know is that autonomy leads to innovation and success,” Henderson said.  She thinks district schools can perform as well as charter schools if they are governed similarly. “If some of my principals sitting right here in DCPS buildings had those same kinds of autonomies, they would do just as well.”

If Superintendent Henderson is correct, then perhaps all district schools should be transformed into charter schools, and all school districts should become systems of autonomous publicly-funded schools. The challenge in this scenario is finding the right regulatory balance between autonomy and ensuring the public good is being served.

(Image of conch fritters from scrumpdillyicious.blogspot.com)


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BY Doug Tuthill

A lifelong educator and former teacher union president, Tuthill has been president of Step Up For Students since August 2008.