Nevada laws frown on charter schools, study says

Wednesday, Jan. 15, 2003 | 11:03 a.m.

Parents and teachers seeking to start charter schools in Nevada face too many hurdles and not enough help, according to a new report released Tuesday by a national education watchdog group.

The Center for Education Reform, a Washington-based watchdog organization, gave Nevada a C grade for the overall weakness of its charter-school laws. The group has promoted charter schools as innovative alternatives to mainstream classrooms.

As one of the nation's fastest-growing states, Nevada should be fertile ground for charter schools, said Anna Varghese, spokeswoman for the Center for Education Reform. Instead, educators and parents seeking to start charter schools in the Silver State must overcome a variety of hurdles, Varghese said.

"For charter schools to be created and to thrive, there need to be laws in place that encourage that kind of growth," Varghese said. "Right now the climate in Nevada doesn't bode well for nontraditional educational opportunities."

The report criticized Nevada law, which places strict controls on charter schools. Under state law, charter schools can only be authorized by local school boards, the number of charter schools is limited and charter schools cannot negotiate with teachers but are held to school districts' negotiated collective-bargaining agreements.

That hamstrings charter schools and limits the autonomy and creativity that is supposed to be a hallmark of the schools, Varghese said.

The study recommended Nevada lift its cap on the number of charter schools allowed in each community and allow school employees to be exempt from collective bargaining agreements. Doing so would give charter schools more control over their own personnel, the study said.

Charter schools are more likely to get up and running when additional agencies issue charters -- such as state education boards or universities, the study said.

That's because charter programs are sometimes viewed as a "threat" to traditional public schools, said Craig Butz, principal of Odyssey Charter School in Las Vegas. School boards are reluctant to approve charters if they think the programs will simply drain students -- and the accompanying tax dollars -- from existing campuses, Butz said.

"In reality, we're having success with kids who for one reason or another struggled in the mainstream classroom setting and have already decided to leave," said Butz, who serves on the board of a national charter school coalition. "Charter schools are all about providing as many opportunities to learn, to as many students, as possible."

Clark County School Board member Susan Brager-Wellman said she's satisfied with the current level of oversight for charter schools and would be reluctant to see the rules loosened.

"At lot of these schools have trouble staying open for any length of time," Brager-Wellman said. "If we were more lenient, we would probably have more of our kids winding up with nowhere to go."

In a report to the Legislative Commission on Education this past summer, Professor George Perreault of the University of Nevada, Reno, said charter schools can sometimes serve as "lighthouses" for the entire district, showcasing innovative approaches and techniques that can later be adapted by other schools.

Nevada's charter school laws, now in the fifth year, have been slowly evolving to"clarify expectations and facilitate the process for the those founding and running such schools," Perreault said.

The biggest roadblock to charter schools in Nevada may be the difficulty in finding facilities. State law doesn't allow existing public or private schools from converting to charter schools. The law also prohibits any public buildings or facilities from being used to house charter schools.

"They all have to start from scratch, which is a daunting task," said Edward Goldman, superintendent of the Clark County School District's southeast region. "Additionally, they can't count on the same kinds of resources and support the other schools get, whether its classroom materials or personnel."

Just 8 percent of the nation's charter schools are in the 12 states -- including Nevada -- that require local school boards approve the applications. During the 2001 Legislature, Nevada lawmakers voted to allow the state education board to grant charters to schools serving only special education students.

States where school boards are the sole authorizer have an average of 16 charter schools, compared with an average of 83 in states with multiple authorizers. In some states, such as California, a school board, mayor, university or the state board of education can approve a charter school.

Nevada currently has 12 charter schools, including four in Clark County. By comparison neighboring Arizona, which earned an A grade from the Center for Education Reform in the new study and allows multiple authorizers, has more than 400 charter schools.

While Nevada has a cap on number of open-enrollment charter schools allowed in each district, there is no cap on charter schools serving so-called "at-risk" students. The definition was broadened by the Nevada Board of Education this summer to include a variety of factors, including children from single-parent homes, non-native English speakers and students facing at least a 45-minute bus ride to school.

Charter schools have had a somewhat rocky history in Nevada, including the sudden closure of Techworld Academy in Clark County in 2000 after just nine weeks of operation, a move that cost the school district $315,000 in lost per-pupil funds. In Washoe County, state Sen. Maurice Washington, R-Sparks, has come under fire for the management of Nevada Leadership Academy, a charter school sponsored by a church where he serves as a minister.