[Local-Maine-Schools] Response to critique of public charter school legislation

[judith d jones]

To readers of the list-serve, 
            After having worked with Skip Greenlaw and so many others on the consolidation fight, when we benefited from Brian’s alerts and analyses, I am disappointed in his critique of the bill to allow public chartered schools in Maine, LD 1553.  It is important to understand the context of this and several other bills introduced this year.

             The data on student achievement, high school drop out numbers, high school graduation rates and college remediation rates has been accumulating for several years.  At the Education Committee’s hearings on Friday, there was general consensus that too many students are dropping out and too few are graduating on time, regardless of that day’s Bangor Daily News article showing a recent increase from about 80.3 percent to 82.8 percent.  Another article yesterday suggested that 54 percent of high school graduates going on to college right away take remedial courses.


             Many people are proposing ways to introduce new ideas, approaches, and reforms in Maine to address this lack of student achievement. LD 1188 suggests a new grant program to help superintendents bring back kids who have dropped out.  LD 1488 proposes to allow “innovative schools and districts.” 

	     LD 1553 would allow public charter schools, which are a proven mechanism for developing innovative public options.  They are voluntary, open to all children without admissions tests, free to parents and affordable for families of all income levels.  More than 5,000 chartered schools in 40 states now enroll 1.6 million children.


             With more than 15 years of experience in other states and a continued commitment to identifying best practices, LD 1553 builds a solid foundation for public charter schools in Maine.

One of the big lessons learned from other states is the importance of the agencies that authorize charter schools and hold them accountable for performance.  The Maine bill provides for a rigorous application process, continuous monitoring by the authorizer, and a detailed process for renewal and revocation decisions.  Three types of authorizers would be allowed:  local school boards, Maine colleges and universities that offer an education degree, and a state charter authorizing commission under the State Board of Education.

            We frequently hear concerns about the role of local school boards and their relationships with public charter schools.  Traditional school boards are an important part of a state’s education system.  Under the proposed Maine public charter school enabling legislation, local school boards could choose to act as authorizers and contract with nonprofit charter schools to offer various education programs.  They could also collaborate with each other to develop regional programs to meet the needs of more students.  They could use the charter school mechanism to convert an existing school to a chartered school, to allow more flexibility in operations, and even to save a small school from closure.  Examples of this approach exist in rural areas in several other states.

            Everyone should know that the wording of the bill he analyzed was published by the Legislature’s Revisor’s Office without several substantive changes that the sponsor, Senator Garrett Mason, had submitted.  Senator Mason plans to submit a “replacement” bill at the hearing on May 12.  We have compiled those amendments in a clean version of the bill, which can be downloaded from our web site, www.mainecharterschools.org.  Several of these changes address points raised in Brian’s critique.  Among other changes, they clarify that public charter schools will be responsible for all aspects of special education; that public charter schools will contribute to costs of any extracurricular programs their students participate in at local district schools; and that public charter schools need to include discussions with the SAU where they might locate in their application to a chartering authority. 

            We are all working for the same goal: To improve public education in Maine and give all of our students the best chance for success. Public schools are an important tool that can give educators the room they need to innovate, increase parental involvement and choice, and help our children reach their fullest potential. It is our hope that the people concerned with improving public education will consider public charter schools with an open mind.

            Judith Jones, Maine Association for Public Charter Schools
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