Charter school debate

  
Column by Ken Plum
www.kenplum.com

Among the topics that are likely to be fiercely debated this legislative session are revisions to Virginia’s charter-school law. The Center for Education Reform, advocates for expanding charter schools, recently gave Virginia a failing grade on its charter school law (www.charterschoolresearch.com). An idea of what the Center feels is appropriate charter school legislation can be gleaned from the fact that it gave the District of Columbia along with Minnesota and California an “A” grade.

The debate on charter schools should not be partisan. Both Gov.-elect Bob McDonnell and President Barack Obama support charter schools. According to a Richmond Times Dispatch editorial of Dec. 9, 2009, Virginia currently has only three of the nearly 5,000 charter schools in the nation. President Obama supports financial incentives to states to increase the number of charter schools. In his career as a legislator, Gov.-elect McDonnell was a supporter of charter schools, tuition tax credits, and vouchers. With the pressures on the budget and the inevitable reduction in funding for public schools, it is hard to see where the money for charter schools would come from unless the federal government comes through with some assistance. Already the Virginia School Boards Association has started to campaign against charter schools as “a program that will take existing school funds from your budgets to spend on establishing charter schools.”

The conservative Virginia think tank, the Thomas Jefferson Institute for Public Policy, supports an expansion of charter schools. It has called for an appropriate debate on the issue. “It would be nice, as Virginians look for educational opportunities that will help children, if all the parties concerned offered constructive new solutions instead of resistance and protectionism. We’ll accomplish a lot more for kids if we work together on their behalf,” the Institute wrote recently (www.thomasjeffersoninst.org).

Andy Rotherham who was educated in the public schools in Reston, has his own education think tank, Education Sector (www.educationsector.org). He, too, has called for making “public charter schools a real option in Virginia.” As an educator myself for nearly 30 years I was deeply involved in setting up alternative schools within the public schools to meet students’ special needs and interests. Specifically in the debate on charter schools I will be listening to hear how charter schools are different from alternative, magnet, and center-based schools within the public schools; whether the charters will have to meet the same standards, testing, and reporting as public schools; whether charter students will need to pass the SOL tests and No Child Left Behind Standards; and whether the current state funding formula and staffing standards will apply to charter schools.

The debate about charter schools can be a healthy way to improve our public schools and the education of Virginia’s children.

Ken Plum is the chairman of the House Democratic Caucus. He represents the 36th District in the House of Delegates.