Charter schools gain favor

Teresa Hinds

Saturday, Feb. 8, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.

Charter schools ran into a brick wall at the Legislature two years ago but have greater momentum this time around.

And they'll need it, given the level of skepticism being voiced.

If bill drafts presented by three state senators do meld into one law, Nevada will become the 26th state to allow this alternative form of public education.

Sen. Jon Porter, R-Boulder City, is leading the charge. He put together a discussion group last summer and used its recommendations in writing his bill draft.

Sen. Maurice Washington, R-Sparks, and Sen. Ernest Adler, D-Carson City, also submitted bill drafts calling for charter schools. Along with Porter, they intend to consolidate their bills into one request.

"I think we'll see some charter legislation," Porter said, expressing optimism that legislators with doubts can be persuaded this session.

One of the doubting legislators is Assemblyman Wendell Williams, D-Las Vegas, chairman of the Assembly Education Committee.

"I'm not sold yet on the idea," said Williams, a former teacher.

Assemblymen Doug Bache and Assemblywoman Chris Giunchigliani, both D-Las Vegas also teachers, are among legislators who also have doubts.

But Porter says in the end, the Legislature will come together on the issue.

"I really am comfortable that we all agree that something has to happen," Porter said.

Athough they vary from state to state according to the authorizing legislation that created them, charter schools are generally autonomous from the local school district. They have a charter created by parents and faculty that enables the school to concentrate on a set curriculum. Parents have a much stronger voice than in a regular public school, where a nearly unpenetrable bureaucracy dictates curriculum changes with each shift of the political wind.

Charter schools were at first criticized as "education reform du jour," an idea with little staying power. Over the past several years, however, they have not only stayed but grown.

Since the first charter school opened in Minnesota in 1991, 25 states and the District of Columbia have enacted charter-school legislation, according to the Center for Education Reform in Washington, D.C.

And 16 states and the District of Columbia have opened charter schools, with a total of 480 in operation serving 105,127 students.

President Clinton has pledged $100 million in seed money for the formation of at least 1,000 charter schools across the nation.

Teachers unions, fearing loss of membership and power, have traditionally opposed charter schools. But lately they have followed the lead of the National Education Association, which has warmed up to charter schools in light of growing national support.

Stephen Confer, executive director of the Clark County Classroom Teachers Association, said his group does not view charter schools as the answer to all of education's problems, but nevertheless supports the concept.

In fact, he said, the CCCTA is working with local developers on ways of getting charter schools built.

"We're pretty optimistic it's going to happen," Confer said of the proposed legislation. "The coalitions are coming together to get it done. I feel optimistic based upon conversations we've had with community leaders."

Representatives from the CCCTA and the Nevada State Education Association were part of Porter's discussion group. The group began meeting last summer in hopes of putting together a bill that all parties could live with.

To make sure the bill wouldn't run into the same brick wall as last session, when it didn't get out of Williams' Education Committee, participants in the discussion group included union and business representatives, Kris Jensen of the conservative Nevada Concerned Citizens, and Clark County School District Superintendent Brian Cram.

The group's recommendations were taken into consideration when Porter drafted his proposal, BDR246.

Cram likens charter schools to the school district's magnet schools, which offer specialized programs to students and fill the classrooms by way of a lottery among qualified students. Any student meeting the grade requirement is allowed to apply for admission to a magnet school.

"It's hard for me to say how much I enjoy and like the products of magnets, and be opposed to charter schools," Cram said. "When you lift the restraints from public schools, sometimes it's easier to pursue some innovative teaching methods."

Jensen, however, sees the teachers union as a "huge roadblock." It will, she said, demand the same salary and benefits for teachers as exist in regular public schools.

"There's no way a charter can do that," said Jensen, a mother of five children in the school district.

Jensen said she nevertheless expects that charter legislation will pass.

"Porter tried really hard to pull everyone to the table," Jensen said. "People are disgruntled enough with public education and falling test scores that the concept was, we need to throw them a bone of some sort."

Jensen would prefer, however, a "tax credit for parents to have a true and honest choice" in deciding where to send their children to school.

Another parent, Maria Cardle, shares some of the same concerns as Jensen.

Cardle was heavily involved in the movement two years ago to get charter school legislation passed and is closely watching the latest charter push.

A child psychologist and the past president of the Alliance for Children's Educational Excellence, Cardle said there needs to be some educational change but added that she isn't sure Porter's draft is the answer.

"In its present form it needs major revisions," Cardle said. "It needs to be opened up to allow anyone who has some competence in the area they're teaching to be able to teach" instead of allowing only licensed teachers to teach in a charter school.

She also said restricting the number of charters to six throughout the state and only allowing two-thirds of the charters to be located in one area is "ridiculous." She suggests up to 100 charter schools be allowed to open if legislation is passed.

"Look at how many people we have and the overcrowding in the schools," Cardle argued.

Union involvement is also a major sticking point with Cardle.

"The whole purpose of charter schools is to have something different" from the public school system, Cardle said.

Regardless, Cardle said she believes charter legislation will come to pass in the 1997 Legislature, particularly with Gob. Bob Miller having made education the top priority in his State of the State address.

"Even people in the system have to acknowledge that something has to be done," she said.

Louise Helton, a former Parent-Teacher Organization president who now serves as the legislative representative for the Junior League of Las Vegas, wants to see a requirement that parents of charter school students must be involved in the school.

"When you feel like you're part of the process, you buy into it, and if you buy into it, then your involvement is going to have an overflow onto the child," Helton said. "Your expectation level for your child is going to be heightened. I could see where it would affect the dropout rate."

Bache and Giunchigliani tend to be skeptical but are keeping open minds.

"I haven't given charter schools a great deal of thought," said Bache, who is a high school teacher when the Legislature isn't in session. "I hear there's a new and different concept this time around, but I need to wait and see what's out there before I make my mind up about it."

Giunchigliani is also reserving judgment, but said she thinks there is potential for charter legislation "depending on how the language is crafted" in the final bill.

She thinks the Legislature will have "much more of a tendency to be willing to look at something like this as long as they have assurances that it doesn't discriminate."

Giunchigliani is a special education teacher at Swainston Middle School.

Williams agreed that many former opponents are "open to more discussion."

But he said that his vote is a long way off.

"Proposals I've seen are moving too much toward privatizing public schools," Williams said. "Public schools funded by private dollars are something I'm against."

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