Favoritism by charter schools questioned
Posted on Monday, January 8, 2007
URL: http://www.nwanews.com/adg/News/178183/
Eight applicants of new Arkansas charter schools risk not receiving federal funding if they go ahead with plans to give enrollment preferences to certain students, the U. S. Department of Education’s top charter school official said.
Dean Kern, director of the Education Department’s Charter Schools Program, said federal guidelines don’t allow open-enrollment charters to grant automatic admission to the children of teachers, school board members, trustees or other volunteers.
The guidelines do allow enrollment preferences for siblings of students already admitted and children of charter schools’ founders, he said.
Kern’s office allocates $ 200 million annually to support charter schools nationwide. He said most state boards allow enrollment preferences that are spelled out in the guidelines.
The eight applicants hoping to be awarded charters at the state Board of Education meeting Jan. 17 are requesting enrollment preferences for children of the school’s teachers, said Caroline Proctor, head of the Arkansas Charter School Resource Center in Fayetteville.
Several applicants also requested enrollment preferences for children of volunteers, trustees and school board members.
The state already has eight open-enrollment charter schools, and each was given the ability by the state to grant some form of enrollment preferences when they got their charters.
The open-enrollment schools include the Benton County School of the Arts in Rogers and Haas Hall Academy in Farmington.
Arkansas received $ 2. 4 million in federal grant money to distribute to new charter schools this year. The funds can’t be allocated to any school that doesn’t follow the guidelines on enrollment preferences.
Proctor said the grants averaged about $ 160, 000 per school. It would be nearly impossible to start a charter school without the grant, barring a wealthy private benefactor, she said.
Proctor said she wants more information about the federal guidelines.
“Then I’ll try to find this out officially and get the information out, because a lot of these charter schools will need to ask to amend their applications,” Proctor said. “If that is in fact true, then that’s a big one.”
In Arkansas, charter schools get the same amount of state guaranteed aid per pupil as a traditional public school — $ 5, 662. But charter schools cannot generate property tax revenue, as a traditional school district can. So charter schools sometimes rely on volunteers or find other sources of assistance, such as federal grants.
The National Alliance for Public Charter Schools has asked the U. S. Charter Schools’ office to add teachers’ children to the preferences list when the guidelines are next revised, said Todd Zeibarth, a policy analyst with the alliance.
That likely won’t happen until after the federal No Child Left Behind Act is reauthorized, he said. In the meantime, both Texas and Colorado have asked the U. S. Charter Schools’ office to allow their charter schools to give preference to teachers ’ children.
The addition is needed, Zeibarth said, to help charters attract quality teachers. PREFERENCES QUESTIONED
State officials questioned the legality of the state’s charter school enrollment practices during an Arkansas Board of Education meeting on Dec. 11 in Little Rock. Scott Smith, the Department of Education’s attorney, is researching the issue.
State Education Department spokesman Julie Johnson Thompson said Smith will deliver a report to the Education Board on Jan. 17 before the board votes on whether to grant the new charters.
Board Chairman Diane Tatum of Pine Bluff said in an interview last week that she’s “absolutely” against enrollment preferences.
“It does not follow the principles of open-enrollment charter schools in terms of allowing anybody to have the opportunity to apply and be given equal consideration,” she said. “I think it hinges on what I would call discrimination.”
But Tatum made an exception for students whose parents teach at the charter school — a practice not allowed under the federal guidelines.
There are two types of charter schools in Arkansas: conversion and open-enrollment charters. Conversion charters are run by public school districts, and open-enrollment charters are operated by nonprofit organizations.
Charter schools are exempt from some traditional regulations, and offer some experimental programming. But they risk their charters, or contracts with the state, if they don’t show academic and financial success.
Open-enrollment charters are open to any Arkansas student regardless of district of residence.
The schools, however, are allowed to cap enrollment each year.
Arkansas Code Annotated 6-23-306, which addresses charter schools, requires that they use “a random, anonymous student selection method” when student demand exceeds the enrollment cap. Most charters use a blind lottery.
A number of the existing open-enrollment charters, however, grant certain students exemption from the lottery and give them automatic admission.
They include schools such as the Knowledge is Power Program: Delta College Preparatory Charter School in Helena-West Helena and Academics Plus in Maumelle.
Some, including Haas Hall Academy, have the ability to give preferences written into their charter but haven’t exercised the option because student demand has not exceeded the enrollment cap.
EXISTING PREFERENCES Local charter school officials argue that children of charter school teachers should receive automatic admission similarly to the way children of traditional public school teachers can attend class wherever their parents work. They also believe siblings of students already admitted to charter schools should get in automatically to avoid breaking up families and to foster family involvement. Children of school founders and board members should get preference to encourage charter startup and volunteerism, they say. Gary Moore, principal of the Benton County School of the Arts in Rogers, which offers kindergarten through eighth grade, said his school gives automatic admission to children of teachers and siblings of existing pupils.
Moore said the number of children affected at his school is negligible.
Only four of the school’s 425 pupils received automatic admission because their parents were teachers there. The number is much higher for siblings, he said.
This spring, the arts school hopes to have its charter renewed for five years.
Charter applicant Covenant Keepers Academy for College Bound Students in Little Rock plans to exempt students of staff, founding board members, current and future trustees and siblings of admitted students, according to its application.
Valerie Tatum, the founder of the proposed school for pupils in grades six through eight, said preferences are a “privilege” aimed at increasing volunteerism at the school — a key ingredient for charter schools that sometimes struggle to stay afloat financially.
Open-enrollment charters receive money from the state but no local property taxes.
“It’s providing a service for the individuals who have come on board to make sure Covenant Keepers Academy for College Bound Students is successful,” said Tatum, who isn’t related to the state board’s Diane Tatum.
“Anyone will have access [to the school ] if they choose to be a board member or work as a part of our staff and faculty,” Valerie Tatum said.
The Northwest Arkansas Academy of the Fine Arts, a proposed charter high school in Rogers for students in grades nine through 12, planned for several enrollment preferences in its initial application.
Its application states that “enrollment preference will be given to the children of... school board members, founding board members, administration, staff, parent / student advisory board members and committee leaders.”
Ben Mays, a state board member from Clinton, said there’s danger in promising enrollment privileges to volunteers.
“If there’s a charter school that came around sometime that wanted to select students based on something other than a lottery, they could select their students by asking certain parents to be volunteers,” he said. “And if there is the potential for abuse, someone will eventually abuse it.”
Mechel Wall, president of the Benton County Charter School Organization, which plans to operate the high school, agrees that the original request was too broad. She said some parents spend entire days volunteering at the arts school, and she was looking to encourage others to do the same. Wall offered a “compromise” in a document sent to the state Education Department on Dec. 29. The school would use a blind lottery until it hits its cap of 250 students. It would then admit siblings of existing students and children of teachers and board members. That would amount to less than 2 percent of the overall student body with preferences, she said. “This was all much to do about nothing,” Wall said. “But if they are unhappy with it, we’ve proposed a compromise that should make everyone very happy and comfortable. We like that.”
To contact this reporter: jkrupa@arkansasonline. com Preferences
The U. S. Department of Education’s Charter Schools Office set guidelines for enrollment preferences concerning the nation’s charter schools. Charters that don’t follow the guidelines aren’t eligible for federal startup grants. The following students shouldn’t be granted automatic admission under the guidelines: Children of teachers. Children of school board members. Children of trustees. Children of school volunteers.