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Extra funding is one secret of charter schools
I’m hopeful about the Knowledge is Power Program opening a charter school in Jacksonville next August.
It will begin with about 90 fifth-graders, picked by lottery, and the plan is to eventually have two elementary schools, two middle schools and a high school.
The KIPP schools have a solid national track record of preparing low-income, minority students for college, and if that is replicated here, some Jacksonville students will be better off.
I also think it’s a big deal that the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is giving $100 million to Hillsborough County’s public schools to improve teaching quality and student achievement there.
But here is what I find frustrating: Clearly both programs recognize the need to invest more in our public schools, but the Florida Legislature continues to cut the budgets of the public schools.
The KIPP schools focus on hard work and discipline.
They have longer school days, from 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.
They have Saturday school twice a month, and they have three weeks of classes during the summer.
They recruit the best teachers and pay them salaries that are 15 to 20 percent higher than what teachers in other public schools earn.
They push a team-oriented approach for both teachers and administrators.
All are good things, and they all take money.
The KIPP charter schools receive state and federal money as do other public schools, but they also depend on private donations to provide another $1,200 or so per student.
And the KIPP national organization has been supported with more than $100 million from big contributors, such as the Gates Foundation, the Walton Family Foundation and the founders of the GAP clothing chain.
Great, but here’s what damage the Legislature has done to Duval County’s public school budgets in recent years.
Instead of longer school days, the school day for high school students was shortened because of the lack of money.
Summer school has been scaled back and limited to certain students because of budget cuts.
Teachers who want to work with students on Saturdays have to do it on their own time.
They also have to dip into their own pockets for needed supplies.
As for a “team-oriented approach,” the latest meddling by the Legislature — Sen. John Thrasher’s steamroller
It will begin with about 90 fifth-graders, picked by lottery, and the plan is to eventually have two elementary schools, two middle schools and a high school.
The KIPP schools have a solid national track record of preparing low-income, minority students for college, and if that is replicated here, some Jacksonville students will be better off.
I also think it’s a big deal that the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is giving $100 million to Hillsborough County’s public schools to improve teaching quality and student achievement there.
But here is what I find frustrating: Clearly both programs recognize the need to invest more in our public schools, but the Florida Legislature continues to cut the budgets of the public schools.
The KIPP schools focus on hard work and discipline.
They have longer school days, from 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.
They have Saturday school twice a month, and they have three weeks of classes during the summer.
They recruit the best teachers and pay them salaries that are 15 to 20 percent higher than what teachers in other public schools earn.
They push a team-oriented approach for both teachers and administrators.
All are good things, and they all take money.
The KIPP charter schools receive state and federal money as do other public schools, but they also depend on private donations to provide another $1,200 or so per student.
And the KIPP national organization has been supported with more than $100 million from big contributors, such as the Gates Foundation, the Walton Family Foundation and the founders of the GAP clothing chain.
Great, but here’s what damage the Legislature has done to Duval County’s public school budgets in recent years.
Instead of longer school days, the school day for high school students was shortened because of the lack of money.
Summer school has been scaled back and limited to certain students because of budget cuts.
Teachers who want to work with students on Saturdays have to do it on their own time.
They also have to dip into their own pockets for needed supplies.
As for a “team-oriented approach,” the latest meddling by the Legislature — Sen. John Thrasher’s steamroller
