Key charter school legislation, designed to provide innovative learning opportunities for children at all academic levels, remains at a standstill in the General Assembly.
Senate Bill 490, the Charter Schools Managed Growth Act, authored by Sen. Larry Shaw, D-Cumberland and Sen. Edward Goodall, R-Mecklenburg, was proposed in hopes of removing the state’s cap of 100 charter schools. However, the bill allowing 10 new charter schools to start up each year hasn’t been brought to the Senate floor for a vote during the 2005 session.
On the contrary, Goodall said militant opposition to the measure has kept it from being reviewed by the appropriate committees. “Jeanne Lucas [D-Durham] said she did not have a release by the education committee to have more charter schools.” he said. “It was not heard in committee.”
In an editorial on the pending bill, Lindalyn Kakadelis, director of the North Carolina Educational Alliance, labeled legislators “gatekeepers of mediocrity.”
“This legislation, proposing to raise the current charter school cap of 100 schools by 10 schools a year, would infuse our state’s charter school movement with some much-needed energy and growth,” Kakadelis wrote. “This total lethargy toward charter schools is particularly surprising as circumstances this year warrant an increase in the cap.”
The children aren’t the only ones at risk. Goodall said North Carolina stands to lose almost $19 million in federal education grants if the legislature doesn’t raise the cap. He said he thinks the majority of political naysayers are standing idly by to see if the grant comes through before seriously considering the bill. “I think it would be embarrassing for the Democratic leadership,” Goodall said, “if they turn down the bill on the cap and they get the grant.”
Goodall said the handling of the bill is another case where the Democratic leadership offered lip service to education innovation and choice, but didn’t deliver. “Democrats face pressure from education special-interest groups,” he said. “Until there is pressure from the public about education I don’t think things will change.”
The lack of commitment by the hesitant senators could be a knee-jerk reaction to a recent study conducted by the North Carolina Center for Public Policy Research. The center recommended that the state maintain its original cap of 100 charter schools until five years of data could be accumulated on the newest educational experiment.
“Charter school supporters are advocating that the legislature increase the number of charter schools allowed from the current cap of 100, but the center’s research indicates that such a move would be premature,” said Mike McLaughlin, editor of the center’s newspaper. “Too many of the schools are mediocre-to-poor academic performers, too many are in fiscal disarray, and too many are segregated by race. That’s not what the legislature hoped for when it began the charter school experiment.”
The report is not true and serves to protect the status quo of public schools, Goodall said. Charter schools were never meant to be cookie-cutter molds of the public school system and cannot be judged by the same standards, he said. Often, he said, charter schools are the only way out for at-risk students and they need to be judged on their own academic merits, not on a test.
“The essence of the charter school is they are all different,” he said. “They can target a student or an educational plan. Some want every school to look alike, but that can’t happen. Targeting at-risk children cannot be viewed as failure,” he said.
There are others who agree.
During a media roundtable on the Black Issues Forum on UNC-TV, Cash Michaels, editor of the Carolinian, said the new schools are providing a sense of community to many black families who have struggled with the public school system.
“I would suggest to you that the charter school movement is something that is very, very strong in the African-American community because a lot black parents want to take back their children’s education,” he said.
Liberal politicians lack the fortitude to make any real changes in the public school system, Goodall said. They are looking out for personal-interest groups, placating those in power, instead of serving for the needs of the taxpayers.
Karen Welsh is a contributing editor of Carolina Journal.