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Charter Schools: What Can WA Expect?
Aired Monday, May 17, 2004 on KPLU
By Jennifer Wing
Anchor Lead:
For years lawmakers and initiative sponsors have tried to bring charter schools to Washington.
What sets the new law apart from previous attempts is its emphasis on educating disadvantaged students.
In the latest edition of The Learning Curve, KPLU education reporter Jennifer Wing visits a charter
school in New York City that inspired state lawmakers to move ahead.
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A middle school located in a rough neighborhood of the Bronx sits across the street from housing projects.
All of the students are African American and Latino. Their grades are so good the school is among the top
ten percent in the district. Most of the students get scholarships to prestigious private high schools
and colleges. This is a charter school based on the Knowledge is Power Program, also known as KIPP.
12-year-old Tasheba Morgan is in the 7th grade. Her face beams when she talks about KIPP.
"Even if we don't have school I still wind up coming to KIPP. I stay 'til 6:30 every day even
though we get out at 3:15 or 5 o'clock. I get here at 7 o'clock even though we're supposed to get
here at 7:25. KIPP showed me that they really care for us and they really want us to go the extra mile."
Teachers at KIPP have cell phones students can call any time day or night. The school days are longer.
There's class on Saturday and during the summer. Discipline is strict. Expectations are high. 13-year-old
Victor Liz is Tasheba's classmate.
"In your old school you didn't have to do homework. If you came in with it you was good. If you didn't,
oh well. You have to do homework here. You have to be nice too. You can't say mean things about your
teammates. You have to encourage them instead of bring them down."
KIPP is one of the reasons why charter legislation passed in Washington state. Its success was highlighted in
testimony on the House and Senate floors. State Representative Dave Quall, a major force behind the bill,
toured the Bronx school and returned home one of its biggest fans.
"As I was walking down the hallway and I was noticing the kids entering the classroom, the teacher greeting
each one, shaking their hand. 50 percent of the kids had their hands in the air because they had the answer
and they wanted to give it. When I went to the orchestra, the performance and the professionalism of these
7th graders who actually ended up playing in Carnegie Hall.
The middle school orchestra is one of the finest in the country. Jesus Concepcion is the music teacher.
Before coming to this charter school he taught for one week in a regular New York public school.
"That week I spent most of my time policing than actually teaching. Here at KIPP 90 percent of the time
you are able to teach because the conditions at KIPP academy starting at the top, allows this environment
to be conducive for learning."
There are 32 KIPP schools across the country and they want to add Washington state to their list of locations.
But can what's happening in the Bronx be replicated here? Gerald Bracey, a psychologist and independent
researcher, says the answer is "no," especially when it comes to the teaching staff.
"To replicate KIPP around the country would require a whole new species of educator that does not
now exist. I don't know how many people would be willing to make the time and effort and to
have that kind of intrusion in their off-school hours."
Bracey was recently invited to speak to the Seattle School Board and members of the state's
largest teachers union about the potential pitfalls of charter schools. The majority of Seattle's
school board members are opposed to charters, which are funded by tax dollars, but independent of much
of the administrative red tape surrounding regular schools.
School Board member Sally Soriano: "We are interested in the entire system, getting the entire system to
work, not just individual schools. So to start chipping away at the funds that are coming into the school at
a time when the district is taking huge cuts is not a direction this board wants to go."
The Seattle School Board isn't alone. Voters said "no" to charters twice at the polls, once in 1996
and again in 2000. What's on the books now is a scaled down version of previous proposals.
It allows for 45 start-up schools over the next six years.
The majority of them have to serve at-risk kids. Local school boards have the power to grant charters and
the authority to shut them down. If a school board denies a request to open a charter, it can be sent
on to the State Office of Public Instruction, which has the final say. None of these scenarios may ever
play out because of a push by the Washington Education Association to get a referendum on the November
ballot that would repeal the charter school law.
"Charter schools simply take money away from the existing public schools."
Mary Lindquist is the president of the Mercer Island Education Association, a branch of the state's
teachers union. She says the state doesn't have enough money to fund basic education let alone
invest in a system that hasn't lived up to its promise to raise academic achievement.
"Proponents of charter schools tell you that they will have increased improved performance on the part
of kids and that's simply has not proven to be the case. If you look as studies conducted by the Rand
Corporation and other groups, the studies show you that charter schools perform no better than schools
of similar demographics."
Lindquist is right, up to a point. Ron Zimmer is a researcher for the Rand Corporation based in Santa Monica,
California, a state that has more than 400 charter schools. Zimmer found unconventional charter schools,
ones that are online or operated out of homes are low performers. A different picture emerges when he
looks at the type of charter made legal in Washington state.
"When you look at start-up classroom based charter schools — these are schools that start from scratch —
we generally found they do slightly better than conventional schools. The other thing that's interesting
about the start-up schools is that they're less likely to participate in the state funding programs.
They actually receive less revenue than conventional public schools."
This fiscal trend, says Dave Levin, a co-founder of the KIPP program, is also playing out in his schools.
"At this school in New York we're spending about $10,000 per kid, a little less, $9,800, which is less than what
New York City spends per average middle school student. In every district, we're trying to be at or
below what that district spends."
But that's not the whole story. In addition to tax dollars there is a lot of private fundraising that goes on.
KIPP has a 30 million dollar grant from the owners of the GAP clothing company and a multi-million dollar
grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The money is used for teacher development and creating
new schools. KIPP also raises money to support the "extras" such as the orchestra and "KIPP to College,"
which mentors kids through high school and higher ed. The annual cost of this program, for the Bronx school
alone, is half a million dollars.
"Even if we didn't have KIPP to College, the success of the school would stand on its own. The problem is
much of that would be undone in high school. And yes, it costs money to do that."
Money remains a sticking point for the Seattle School District and many more who oppose charters.
But some districts are embracing the legislation and its focus on struggling students. Federal Way is one of them.
While the district's test scores have steadily risen, African American, Hispanic and Native American students
are still far behind. Tom Murphy is Federal Way's Superintendent.
"I believe the responsibility that we have in public education is to figure out if there are people or
approaches that are making a bigger difference than we're able to make, then we should welcome them."
Meanwhile critics of charter schools are moving ahead with their campaign to repeal the new law.
They're confident they'll get the 98,000 signatures needed to get a referendum on the ballot. If that
happens, the public will have a third, and likely final say in the voting booth on whether charter schools
will become a reality in Washington state.
Jennifer Wing, KPLU News, Seattle
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