By Rolfe McCollister

There is at least one thing President Barack Obama and I can agree on. Last week, The Times-Picayune reported that Obama again “cited Louisiana as one of the states adopting effective school reform policies.” Speaking at a Virginia elementary school, the president said, “In Illinois, Louisiana, Tennessee, California, we’ve seen changes in laws or policies to let public charter schools expand and succeed.” We have certainly come a long way since that first legislation passed 15 years ago—a dream of Jim Geiser and a bill by former State Rep. Sean Reilly.
Fact is, charter schools are the fastest growing and most successful reform in the U.S. Currently in Louisiana, there are 77 charter schools operating in 13 parishes, serving more than 30,000 students. With a big boost post-Katrina, New Orleans has more charter schools open than public schools—making it the only such city in America.
So how are state charter schools doing? A recent report by Stanford University’s Center for Research on Education Outcomes [CREDO] found that public charter schools in Louisiana are outperforming their non-charter school peers on student achievement. The report also found that African-American students and students in poverty performed significantly better compared to their noncharter school counterparts.
“Due to our state’s embrace of the charter school movement, Louisiana is one of a handful of states that is closing the achievement gap between African-American students and their white counterparts,” said Caroline Roemer Shirley, executive director of the La. Association of Public Charter Schools.
Many charter critics, often school board members, accuse charters of selecting students, when the public schools must take everyone, including special education students. Well, a significant finding in the report showed “the overall proportion of charter school students who are special education is 16%, which is equal to the 16% found in non-charter schools.”
We are currently very fortunate to have a governor, state superintendent of education, Recovery School District leader, legislature, state charter association—and currently BESE, shaky though it often seems—that support charter schools. The National Alliance for Public Charter Schools issued their first ranking of all state charter school laws and Louisiana ranked ninth. That’s strong—and improving.
So you’ve heard all the talk of charter schools but don’t really know what they are. The critics spread a lot of misinformation [or lies] to confuse and harm this movement. Here are the facts:
• Charter schools are publicly funded, tuition-free public schools.
• Charter schools are authorized and monitored by either BESE or a local school board, and each year every charter school must demonstrate academic achievement and fiscal and legal compliance with state laws and regulations. A charter school that fails to meet the fiscal, legal, or academic standards set forth in its contract with its authorizer must be closed.
• Charter schools must abide by the same high-stakes testing policies as traditional public schools.
• Charter schools are governed by a nonprofit board that must comply with open meeting laws, providing a forum for parents and community members to discuss the school’s operation. As such, charter schools provide opportunities for direct community involvement and parental input, enabling the schools to make quick, effective changes to meet students’ specific needs, which helps improve student achievement.
• Charter schools empower principals and teachers. Charter school educators have on-site decision-making power to hire and fire teachers, to set their own pay scales, to create their own curricula, and to extend the school day, school week and school year as needed. Such autonomy is designed to give these educators the tools and the speed they need to continually meet their students’ needs, which helps improve student achievement.
Let me say that charter schools are not a “silver bullet” to fix government-run public schools; they are an alternative. Some succeed and some don’t, and the parents have a right to come and go. As in private enterprise, the customer has the final say and the strong survive. The competition to attract, serve and satisfy the parents should be what makes a school principal and faculty get up every morning and give it their best. That is often lacking in the monopoly known as “public schools,” which the government runs and is often controlled by teacher unions and politicians. The customers [student and parent] are not the No. 1 concern.
Tenure doesn’t exist at charter schools. Tenure was developed for college campuses, not elementary schools. Give me a break. No elementary teacher is going to guarantee parents their child will learn—and no elementary teacher should be guaranteed his or her job. There’s no job protection in the private sector.
Let me conclude by saying charters aren’t the only form of school choice. I believe in virtual charters, home schools and opportunity scholarships [or vouchers]. I believe whatever works in educating our children is most deserving of getting the public tax dollars intended for that purpose. No monopolies. That hasn’t worked. The success of charters in Louisiana is proof we have alternatives and should aggressively use them for the children’s sake.
LSU leads by example
There was a recent article in USA Today on the subsidies universities provide to their athletic programs. USA Today got documents from 99 public schools in Division I-A. The article stated, “Of the 30 public schools where the percentage of athletic revenue from subsidies rose the most from 2004-05 to 2007-08, five were from the ACC’s nine public schools. Three were from the SEC. Nebraska and LSU were the only schools whose athletic programs reported receiving no subsidies in each of the four years studied.”
LSU and Nebraska stood out among the crowd as the only athletic departments to receive no subsidies. LSU, Joe Alleva and his staff are to be commended for their excellent performance.
A chart accompanied the article showing the 30 schools with the largest percentage increase of subsidies to athletics over the four-year period. Three were from Louisiana: Louisiana Tech, No. 2; UL Lafayette, No. 5; and UL Monroe, No. 24. As higher ed looks for cuts, this might be the place to start.
Liberal bias is obvious
We all know when we read an opinion column that the columnist has his or her own bent or perspective on things. Cal Thomas is conservative and Susan Estrich is liberal. I am pro-Jindal and The Advocate's Mark Ballard is anti-Jindal every Sunday. But these are opinions and belong on editorial pages.
Last week, when Scott Brown was being elected U.S. senator to replace Ted Kennedy in Massachusetts, it was historic. I was watching Fox news when Brown came out to give his victory speech. I flipped over to CNN to see the coverage and there was nothing. It was Anderson Cooper in the jungles of Haiti.
I don’t mean to downplay the tragedy in Haiti, but I just wonder: Had Brown been beaten, would CNN have interrupted the program for the speech?
Then, the next morning I am reading The Advocate and there is a headline, “Mass. loss hurts health-care effort.” Who wrote that “news” headline? That could have easily been a headline for a New York Times editorial. Why didn’t it say “Mass. victory thwarts Obamacare” or “Brown saves America from health-care disaster.” Would The Advocate’s liberal readers complain about that?

http://www.businessreport.com/news/2010/jan/25/school-choice-must-grow-louisiana/?columnists