LITTLE ROCK — THE MEMBERS of Little Rock’s school board, along with its lawyers and top administrators, won’t say this latest hubbub over charter schools is all about money and power. That would be too close to the truth.
But here’s how the funding works: The state allocates money to school districts based on the number of kids in each school. For every kid who chooses to attend a charter school, that’s money the district doesn’t get. Instead, the money goes to another kind of public school: the charter school.
That’s money not being paid to the district’s lawyers. That’s money not being paid to the district’s administrators. That’s money that can’t be used for political patronage. That’s money the school district’s lawyers call “lost,” or in layman’s terms, “used to educate kids.”
In their fight against charter schools, those occupying space at district headquarters need to say something more high-minded than We’re Losing Money.Lately, they’ve tended to claim that charter schools harm the district because they interfere with desegregation. They say charter schools pick the cream of the crop, leaving Little Rock’s public schools to deal with kids that don’t perform as well in the classroom. Those kids tend to be poor and black. And so traditional public schools, it’s explained, are being hurt because they’re being segregated all over again. Woe is us.
Gosh, if there were only a way to analyze the impact that charter schools really have on desegregation in Little Rock’s public schools.
Actually, there is. Back in September, some researchers at the University of Arkansas put together a study that addresses this very point. Its title: An Analysis of the Impact of Charter Schools on Desegregation Efforts in Little Rock, Arkansas. And it makes for interesting reading. Maybe somebody should make a bunch of copies and pass it around at the next meeting of Little Rock’s school board.
One of the four members of the school board who opposes charter schools, Mike Daugherty, argues that charter schools act as publicly funded private schools. He says they recruit high-performing students, leaving the school district to deal with fewer resources to educate kids with greater needs. In effect that means racial segregation all over again as white kids leave the district in droves, running for those charters.
But the facts would seem to disagree: On page 11 of the UofA’s report, the researchers say the percentage of white kids transferring from traditionalschools to charters was only 36 percent. Overwhelmingly, the kids flowing to charter schools in Little Rock are not white kids. Which would suggest that the existence of charter schools not only doesn’t mean fewer white kids in the district, but maybe just the opposite. There are a lot of black parents in Little Rock who want their kids to get a better education than the district is offering. But the black majority on the school board seems dead set against it. Yep, the four-member majority on the board is talking lawsuits again. Here’s hoping they hear from their constituents soonest, or at least by the next school board election.
As far as all the weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth over racial segregation goes, yes, we have to admit that three of the charter schools in Pulaski County are among the most segregated in the county. Academics Plus K-8, Academics Plus 10-12, and Convenant Keepers College Prep are indeed among the top 20 most segregated. But get this:
The other 17 most segregated are traditional public schools.
So who’s segregating our kids?
To quote one of the study’s not-sosubtle conclusions: “Charter schools in [Pulaski County] are no more segregated than traditional public schools in [Pulaski County].”
Even a non-lawyer can understand that.
IN THE last month, Little Rock’s school district has come up with a plan to improve schools. They call the plan “eye-popping.” Whether that ends up being the case is anybody’s guess. What’s clearer is that the school district needs to improve, or it will keep losing students to charter schools.
This is called competition. Which is one reason charter schools were invented. If a charter school fails, it can be closed down. But as long as it stays open, it must compete for students. And for the money that follows those students. This means traditional public schools, in order to compete, must improve, improve, improve.
If this latest plan proposed for Little Rock’s school district is a success, it’d be safe to assume a large part of that success is because many parents moved their kids to charter schools, inspiring the just-announced plan to improve the curriculum in the state’s largest school district. Do you think such a plan would ever have been considered if the district wasn’t being pressed to improve?
Don’t you love it when competition works to benefit all?
Editorial, Pages 16 on 04/03/2010