Out-of-town charters spur lawsuits
Charter growth is ‘like the Wild West.’
They pop up in strip malls and churches offering an alternative to the traditional classroom experience.
For many students, these small charter schools — some are satellite branches of sorts — provide a new chance at an education with flexibility and an opportunity to learn outside the box. But school districts say they’ve been inundated by stealth charters that show up — usually without notice that’s required by law — poaching students and the state attendance funds that come with them.
San Diego County has seen a rise in “out-of-district” charters in recent years — mostly independent-study programs authorized by small districts in the eastern reaches of the region. The arrangements can be appealing because the authorizing districts don’t stand to lose students, and they receive a percentage of the charter’s revenue in exchange for varying degrees of oversight and often administrative support services.
Regardless of what’s driving this trend, it has sparked bitter turf wars that have pitted districts against one another and stirred costly litigation.
“It’s been described as the Wild West out there,” said Scott Patterson, deputy superintendent of business services at the Grossmont Union High School District, which is suing to shut down two charters — Diego Valley and Julian — that operate learning centers in its boundaries under agreements authorized by the Julian Union School District. “When you have charters from far-flung districts operating in Grossmont, it gets to issues of accountability and oversight. Where is the oversight? We know we’re not providing it.”
Charters are publicly funded schools (including traditional classroom-based programs, independent-study programs and hybrids) that operate independently under agreements intended to foster innovation. For charter students, the appeal of nontraditional programs has nothing to do with the law, or the public agency that signed off on the agreement.
Nearly 200 students and supporters — some of them wearing neon yellow T-shirts with the message #DefendSchoolChoice — staged a rally at Thursday’s Grossmont school board meeting to protest the lawsuits and offer testimony about their charter school experiences, with public relations assistance from former San Diego City Councilman Jim Madaffer’s consulting firm.
Reading from a printed statement, Cloey Peel told the board that Julian Charter School’s Alpine Academy, which was authorized by the Julian Union School District, has given her a meaningful education that accommodates a personal medical condition that requires her to miss school.
“Everyone is helpful and makes me feel like I belong at this school,” said Cloey, 16. “I plan on graduating with the honor of saying Julian Charter was there for me, through it all, to guide me in the right direction. ...”
Ricardo Soto, senior vice president and general counsel for the California Charter School Association, said San Diego County school districts are threatened by non-classroom-based charters that he believes operate SD County sees rise in non-local charters, lawsuits | SanDiegoUnionTribune.com: