Public Education

CHART THE CHARTERS

In the aftermath of Katrina, the Bush administration gave New Orleans a large federal grant to convert all but four of its public schools to charters. Amid all the confusion and general discombobulation of the disaster, the changeover went unnoticed; even now, when things have settled down, most of the American public is unaware that such a major project was funded. The charter school movement usually obtains the go-ahead in major cities after a board of education has studied the proposal and then controls an experimental number of schools under acute observation. But the changeover in New Orleans underwent no scrutiny from the public or educators. So, how is it going?

We don’t know. And that is the situation, in general, with the charter movement country-wide. Cities are interested, boards of education sanction a few charters among many standard public schools, and the public is intrigued. The media provide the news that certain schools are going charter, that this or that charter company is active in a city, and then give anecdotal information about how things are going in a charter school. Or not. That is, the flow of information is slow and incomplete; neither city-wide nor nation-wide are there any valid statistics to indicate how charters are doing.

The media inform the public that charter schools are different from standard public schools - though they are supported entirely by public (that is, taxpayer) funds. They are not bound by board of education rules in many ways, including how the schools are organized, how faculties are managed, and so on. It is all rather vague, going under the general title of “reform”, but the public receives the general impression that the charters are freed from many of the board of education’s regulations - and that is the basis for the claim that they can do a better job.

Maybe they can. But shouldn’t the public know more of the specifics? Privatization clearly means a transfer of power from the public to a non-public institution, but the public’s children will be in attendance, and the public therefore must have full answers to these questions:

 To what extent can a charter school choose its own curriculum?
 How will the student body be chosen?
 Will the students chosen represent the community?
 Aside from basic state credentials, what kind of teachers will the charter school seek?
 Without either a union or a board of education to prescribe and protect their professional qualifications, rights, and duties, how will charter teachers be protected from unfair working condition?
 If a beginning teacher is deemed unsatisfactory at a charter school, will s/he be able to overcome the stigma of a bad rating and find a job in a public school?
 Are the charter schools non-profit or for-profit?
 What kind of salary does a CEO (aka principal) of a charter school make?
 What are the pay scales for the teachers?
 How is the money paid to charter schools accounted for to the public?

There are at present no clear, complete answers to any of these questions. Since two precious commodities - our children and our taxes - are directly impacted by the prospects of privatization of the public schools, it is obviously necessary to have answers before we enlarge the scope of charter schools. Everyone know that public schools are facing serious problems: there isn’t enough money and the kids don’t seem to be learning as much or behaving as well as we want. Charter schools present themselves as the solution, but are they? So far, we do not have a real evaluation of the charter movement as a whole.

New Orleans presents a possible answer: in a few years we should have valuable data to determine how effective charter schools are at addressing and solving the problems of public education, especially since New Orleans presents a composite of the problems of every urban school district in the United States. If charter schools work in New Orleans, won’t they work anywhere?

But first we must have answers to the questions. Now we must move with caution until we know how charters work in New Orleans, where they are city-wide instead of in a scattering of schools. If privatization works in New Orleans, then we can greet them as the schools of the future. And if not, then back to the drawing board.

Meanwhile, until we know instead of speculate, America must not be driven to kill public schools. They are the backbone of our democracy and can not be lightly abandoned.