Charter schools are worth a shot
Charter schools are not going to miraculously turn around every failing school in Mississippi.
Certainly, though, they are an innovation worth trying, since very little else has seemed to work in those schools which have proven themselves chronically unable to deliver a basic education to their students.
This past weekend, before taking a 23-day recess to let the state’s budget dilemma shake out a little more, Mississippi lawmakers passed a bill that would revive charter schools in this state as well as give the state Department of Education a new option in dealing with failing schools.
The new charter school legislation is less watered down than the previous law, which expired in 2009 and which resulted in only one charter school being created in a dozen years.
Under the new legislation, which still must be signed by Gov. Haley Barbour, parents in schools that have been underperforming for three years — that is, falling in one of the three lowest of the state’s seven accountability levels — could petition the state to convert their schools to charter status. If granted, the schools would continue to receive public funding but have their own oversight board, separate and independent from the local school board. The charter schools would be free to innovate with staffing, curriculum, length of school day and year and most everything else, provided their performance on state-mandated tests measured up.
The downside of the legislation is that it is a very limited experiment, allowing only three charter schools per congressional district, or 12 in total. Also, it stipulates that no matter how good a management plan is submitted to the state Department of Education, at least 50 percent of a school’s parents would have to approve the conversion before it could move forward. Given the lack of parental involvement in a lot of these failing schools, hitting that 50 percent threshold could be a big hurdle.
Separately, the bill gives the state Department of Education the authority to take over individual schools. In the past, the state’s takeover efforts have been limited to entire districts.
Schools that are listed as “failing,” the lowest accountability level, for three straight years could become “new start” schools. The Department of Education would be empowered to clean house, hiring a new principal and replacing the entire staff, if necessary. This provision actually could be more effective than a charter school conversion, since the state’s involvement should ensure the hiring of a competent principal — the person who largely determines how well a school operates.
Charter and new start schools have met with some distrust in the Legislature, predominately from African-American members who worry they will bleed resources and students from the traditional public schools. They argue that instead of abandoning the traditional model, the state should pump more resources into it.
The problem with that argument is the traditional model is not working in too many places because of weak or incompetent school leadership. That deficiency has not improved, no matter how much the state has beefed up education funding.
Presently, almost one-fourth of the state’s public schools are classified as failing or at risk of failing. If those schools can’t do better, it’s time to try something else.
Charter schools have the endorsement of numerous national leaders, including President Barack Obama. In fact, the administration has all but said that in order to qualify for a slice of the $4.35 billion in “Race to the Top” education grants, a state has to have a robust charter school law.
Mississippi’s new version could stand to be more robust, but it’s certainly better than the nothing that’s on the books now.