*API In The News *

Push for charter schools sparks segregation concerns

By Markeshia Ricks

Montgomery Advertiser

Published November 22, 2009

With the promise of massive amounts of federal funds pressing a decision on whether the state should have charter schools, some legislators and education groups are urging the state to slow down.

Alabama is in the hunt for its share of more than $4 billion in federal funds and the quest for that money has sparked a debate about charter schools that some say the state shouldn’t be having if the goal is rushing legislation through during the 2010 session.

States must apply for the first round of federal Race to the Top funds by mid-January. States that don’t receive any grants or didn’t apply during the first round can apply during a second round in June 2010. The U.S. Department of Education will make all awards by Sept. 30, 2010.

Alabama is already in the process of preparing its application for the first round, but Gov. Bob Riley and state Superintendent Joe Morton have both voiced concern that having no charter school law on the books could weaken the state’s application. Alabama is one of 10 states with no charter school statute.

“I absolutely think we can compete and the reason I think we can win is that the former secretary of state said that there is more reform going on in the state of Alabama than anywhere else in the union,” Riley said. “What we’re doing with pre-K, the Alabama Reading Initiative, distance learning — these programs are the best in the country and people come from all over to see them.

“What Race to the Top is about is programs like these and our ability to expand them to all of the kids rather than just a part of them.”

But Sally Howell, director of the Alabama Association of School Boards, said education advocates, state officials and lawmakers need to talk about charter schools and work from the same definition of what they are.

“People mean different things when they say charter schools,” she said. “School boards support various ways to improve student achievement and charter schools are possibly one means for that end, but based on what we’ve seen across the nation they can be a good thing or they can be unmitigated disasters.

“The last thing we need to do is act in haste and push forth legislation,” Howell said. “We need to have a coherent conversation where we can come together around a table instead of battling it out in the State House.”

Riley has said that his office is developing legislation and state Sen. Steve French, R-Birmingham, is working with the Alabama Policy Institute to draft his legislation. But people like Howell and School Superintendents of Alabama President Eric Mackey said no one is discussing that legislation with them.

A dual system?


Mackey said the state superintendents’ organization has not taken a formal position on whether it would support charter schools, but from his personal perspective there might be a place for limited charter schools. Mackey is the superintendent of Jacksonville City Schools, and he said charter schools shouldn’t replace public schools, but they should be models of innovation.

“I think superintendents would be willing to look at and explore what possibilities there are,” he said. “But what I’m afraid of is that if we rush this we will write a bad law that basically creates a dual system.”

The re-segregation of schools has been one of the most voiced concerns when it comes to charter schools. And a new report from The Civil Rights Project at the University of California Los Angeles has enumerated those concerns. The project has made an ongoing study of charter schools and the lack of civil rights policy concerning them. The report, “Equity Overlooked: Charter Schools and Civil Rights Policies,” finds that charter schools can raise the danger of further escalating the re-segregation of public schools, a phenomenon that is already taking place in traditional public schools in the South.

The authors of the report, Erica Frankenberg and Genevieve Siegel-Hawley, write that, “Tying education stimulus dollars eligibility to charter numbers unfairly pressures states to ramp up efforts to authorize and open charter schools without considering the impact on racial and economic segregation.”

Frankenberg and Siegel-Hawley recognize that there are “outstanding and diverse” charter schools, but believe that the federal government should do more to ensure that all charter schools are that way.

Both Riley and Morton have said they would not support any legislation that would re-segregate schools, but anyone pushing charter school legislation will have to get it past some of the skeptical minds of members of policy committees in the state Legislature.

State Rep. Barbara Boyd, D-Anniston, is one of those skeptical minds. She’s a member of the House Education Policy Committee, and she said she would have a problem if charter schools resulted in the further segregation of the Anniston City Schools by race or socioeconomic status. Anniston City Schools have seen many white students and middle class students of all races abandon the system for the Calhoun County school system.

“I think charter schools might be fine if they’re operated for the purpose for which they are designed,” she said. “But you’ve got to be fair and equitable.”

Money matters

Funding charter schools also is another hot-button issue. Former Booker T. Washington Magnet High School principal and current state Sen. Quinton Ross, D-Montgomery, said he attended Riley’s education symposium, where U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan spoke about Race to the Top and how charter schools would be a prerequisite to access those funds.

While Race to the Top no longer has that same emphasis, Ross said he knows it’s important to the Obama administration. But he’s not sure if the state is financially ready to have charter schools.

“When you think of charter schools, they can be another innovative way of delivering education,” he said. “But you have to keep in mind that there are many things draining our education dollars. We could open the door to fund these types of initiatives (charter schools), so that we can access these Race to the Top funds, but just like the stimulus money this money is going to go away.”

Ross, who is also on both the Senate’s education committees, said when the federal money runs out, it will be up to the state to pay for its charter schools and they could be in the same situation that many of the state’s initiatives are in now — strapped for cash.

In addition, Ross said charter schools typically handle their own finances and school districts would essentially be turning over the dollars they’re allocated and held responsible for to these schools with little, if any, say in how that money is spent. He said if a charter school closes down because of financial mismanagement or because it doesn’t have the resources to stay open, that’s state money that disappears.

The funding issue also is one of the many problems that the one candidate for governor who has come out against charter schools says he has with the recent push to implement them in Alabama.

State Agriculture and Industries Commissioner Ron Sparks said in a recent news conference that Riley and Sparks’ opponent for the Democratic nomination for governor, U.S. Rep. Artur Davis, are putting too much emphasis on the charter school piece of Race to the Top.

He said the state could be competitive without charter schools.

Sparks, who supports taxing and regulating gambling in the state and allowing a vote on a lottery, said the only way he would even consider charter schools is if enough new revenue could be generated for education from ideas such as the ones he’s proposed.

Pressing ahead

Riley said he doesn’t want to forfeit the 40 possible points that states are eligible for based on their capacity to create charter and other innovative schools, particularly when other states are doing whatever they have to do to get the money. He said he also knows how important charter schools are to the president and the secretary of education.

“You have the president of the United States and the secretary of education for the United States saying that this is critically important to your system,” he said. “It is hard to argue with someone who has partial responsibility for all of the kids in the United States. And if you just think about it for a minute, it is remarkable that this administration is saying that charter schools are absolutely without question something that every school system should try.”

Mackey said he believes that the state might have some leverage on the charter schools issue because the criterion that includes charter schools also mentions “other innovative schools.”

He said the charter schools issue would be the perfect thing for a state committee created by a joint resolution of the Legislature to study and come back with recommendations.

“Alabama is already doing some innovative things in every corner of the state and we can compile a pretty good list of innovations going on here,” he said. “I don’t feel we’ve had enough conversation about it. This is a big turn to make in public policy and we can’t turn 180 degrees on a dime.”

Howell said she doesn’t want to see the state lose focus by adding yet another initiative.

“There are only so many reform initiatives you can juggle,” she said. “The good part of charter schools is that they are meant to inspire innovation, but we don’t want to create pockets of excellence.

“We need to find out what works and push it through systemically,” Howell said. “I think it’s something we need to consider carefully and cautiously."