Oh, Those Darn Charter Schools

February 20, 2008 by dave

Protectors of the status quo in public education are always whining about charter schools. They're mad at charters for cherry picking "their students." They're mad at charter schools for poor fiscal practices. They're mad at charters for their freedom from some education regulations. Basically, they're just plain mad at charter schools.

This Riverside Press-Enterprise story is simply another anti-charter school rant.

Requiring charter operations to follow laws governing conflicts of interest and nepotism -- as every other public institution must do -- would head off many of the abuses. Letting the same people control charter schools and own the companies those schools buy from invites mismanagement. And packing governing boards with employees, family members and friends makes hash of independent oversight.

Charter schools should also follow the state's open meetings and public records laws. Exempting charter schools from those requirements removes a critical deterrent to waste and corruption. Lavish salaries and questionable spending are far more difficult when the public can scrutinize financial decisions. And financial transparency makes outside review easier -- a key step in protecting the public's investment.

Such requirements do not constrict charter schools' experimentation with education, but serve taxpayers' interests. Even outstanding academic achievement cannot justify wasting precious tax money.

While I agree that charter schools that are criminally dishonest should be closed and prosecuted, I'm a little puzzled by the editorial board's contention that "outstanding achievement" doesn't "justify wasting precious tax money." To be completely honest, if a charter is getting outstanding student academic achievement as measured by the California Standards Test (CST) and the California High School Exit Exam (CAHSEE), I'm not really concerned about a little waste of tax money.

My problem is with the waste of tax money by the charters and school districts that don't have outstanding achievement. In fact, the majority of charters and school districts don't have outstanding achievement. Why isn't the Riverside Press-Enterprise concerned about that waste? Heck, if you need an example, just look at all the money California has poured into programs to reward low-performing schools, such as II/USP, HPSGP and now QEIA. With over a billion dollars spent, the state can't produce any evidence that these programs have worked. That's a terrible waste and you can't blame charter schools for this one.

How about Class Size Reduction? While on the surface, you'd tend to think that smaller class sizes would improvement instruction, the results haven't been so clear. We've just forced school districts to hire more teachers, some of them poor and build more classrooms. I'd rather have large class sizes with a really great teacher and than smaller classes taught by mediocre teachers.

The financial waste of taxpayer money by outstanding charters pales in comparison to the waste from all the other crappy charters, crappy school districts and the California Department of Education. Let's focus our angst where it belongs... waste in low-performing environments.

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