Opinion: Charter schools don’t belong in new recovery district. They are already bound by ‘perform or close’ mandate
Dr. Tony Roberts is president & CEO of the Georgia Charter Schools Association. He wrote this essay in response to the governor’s proposed Opportunity School District, a state-run district that would take over low-performing schools.
His point: Charter schools should not be among the schools taken into the special state district because an effective mechanism already exists to monitor and close them.
By Tony Roberts
In the AJC article this week, “New plan for failing schools,” a list of 141 “persistently failing schools” is described based on the College and Career Performance Index. The article mentioned: “Two state-approved charter schools are on the list of low performers as well.”As a follow-up, AJC reporter Greg Bluestein posted on the AJC political blog that some skeptics of the proposed Opportunity School District were using the argument that the two schools on the list of failing schools already under state oversight—“state charter schools”—were indicative of the kind of job the state would do if charged with taking over schools.
This argument falls apart miserably when the truth about these and other charter schools in Georgia is known. (For clarification, I am speaking of “traditional, start-up charter schools” approved either by local school districts or the state Charter Schools Commission—not charter systems or college and career academies that are most always under the control of a local school board.)
First, “state charter” school is a misnomer as the state does not own or run charter schools. The state approvescharter schools, as do local school districts, but they are operated independently with their own board of directors and their own staff, budget, curriculum, and their own higher goals of academic achievement to which they are contractually obligated in their charter. (The AJC stated it correctly by describing the schools as “state-approved.”) By “higher,” I mean at least higher either than the average of similar schools in their district or higher than the state average, in some cases.
Second, charter schools that do not live up to the “promises” made in their charter petition are closed after a reasonable period — or should be. Sometimes this happens by the school’s charter not being renewed at the end of their five-year contract—or even prior to the end if no improvement is in sight. But the result is the same. Charter schools can only exist if they deliver the results they promise or better.
For example, two state-approved charter schools were closed in 2014: Heritage Preparatory Academy in Atlanta and Scholars Academy in Clayton County. The original charter (or contract) term for Heritage did not expire until Opinion: Charter schools don’t belong in new recovery district. They are already bound by ‘perform or close’ mandate | Get Schooled:
