VEA offers special thanks to Delegate Steve Landes, Chairman of
the House Education Committee, for including VEA in the work group for the
proposed study (HJR112), on "the revision or reorganization of the
Standards of Quality with a particulars emphasis on the use of educational
technology."
We also thank Speaker Howell for including VEA on the proposed
Commission on Employment Retirement Security and Pension Reform (HB665).
It appears that both the House and Senate will vote on the
Charter School Constitutional Amendment this coming week. Here is what we circulated to Delegates and
Senators today:
This Constitutional
Amendment radically changes how charter schools are approved in Virginia.
This
constitutional amendment shifts the decision making process regarding charter
schools from where it rightfully belongs—with the local school board—to the
nine member Virginia Board of Education appointed by the Governor.
Nine members of the
Virginia Board of Education, appointed by the Governor, could require the
localities you represent to build, staff, and administer a charter school
regardless of local needs, fiscal constraints or desires.
This constitutional
amendment would take the charter granting responsibility away from the local
governments that would provide the lion’s share of funding for the charter
school.
Let’s look at the example of Arlington. The state provides only 12% of the funds, on a per-pupil basis, to run Arlington’s schools. But under this proposal, the state could require Arlington’s taxpayers to foot 85% of the bill for establishing a charter school.
Virginia’s public
schools are high performing. Research on
charter schools suggests their educational outcomes are no better than traditional
public schools, and oftentimes worse.
Research does not support overriding the authority of the
local school board inherent in this amendment. The
findings of the Center for Research on Education Outcomes (CREDO) on
achievement in multiple subject areas found that:
Almost one-fifth of charters (17 percent) performed significantly better (at the 95 percent confidence level) than the traditional public school. However, an even larger group of charters (37 percent) performed significantly worse in terms of reading and math. The remainder (46 percent) did not do significantly better or worse.
Almost one-fifth of charters (17 percent) performed significantly better (at the 95 percent confidence level) than the traditional public school. However, an even larger group of charters (37 percent) performed significantly worse in terms of reading and math. The remainder (46 percent) did not do significantly better or worse.
The CREDO findings are consistent with other mainstream
research on this topic.
Many Virginia schools
would be considered charters in other states – we have many public choice options.
Many schools in Virginia would be considered to be charter
schools in other states. For example, we
have governor’s schools, specialty schools, magnet schools, IB schools, and Montessori
schools. Virginia law affords great
flexibility to our schools boards, and where population density and funding allow,
they are providing public school choice options. Virginia ranks 6thin the nation in
the percentage of public schools which are magnet schools.
Virginia’s current
charter school law has prevented the fraud and abuse we have seen in other
states. This amendment would open that
door to for-profit charters, which have corrupted the charter movement in
fifteen states.
There is significant documentation of fraud and abuse within
the charter school movement. “Charter
School Vulnerabilities to Waste, Fraud And Abuse,” authored by the Center
for Popular Democracy and Integrity in Education, echoes a warning from the
U.S. Department of Education’s Office of the Inspector General. The report
draws upon news reports, criminal complaints and more to detail how, in 15 of
the 42 states that have charter schools, charter operators have used school
funds illegally to buy personal luxuries for themselves, support their other
businesses, and more.
Let us not fool ourselves;
Virginia’s underperforming schools are the consequence of the concentration of
poverty – not the absence of charter schools.
JLARC’s June 2013 report on Low Performing Schools in High
Poverty Communities offered the following:
“More than 50 years of research literature documents the
negative effects of poverty on students.”
“The research literature is replete with evidence of the
importance of having a sufficient number of effective teachers, using sound
instructional practices, and providing additional student support services.
Unfortunately, many high poverty schools—especially those that struggle—do not
have these. The lack of these key practices further compounds the difficulty of
negating the effects of high poverty.”
Facing up to these challenges is the real answer. The charter school debate is a distraction.
Don’t fix what isn’t
broken.
Your vote is not about whether or not we have charter schools
in Virginia: it is about who makes the
charter granting decision. Please leave
the charter granting authority closest to the people with local school boards. Please vote against H.J.R. 1 and S.J.R. 6