Charter chatter; More education laboratories

Editorials

Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

Sunday, August 6, 2006

WHAT’S GOING on here?

Apparently a lot of Caroline Proctor is going on here. 

Planners for 19 charter schools have asked the state to allow them to pursue their dream. That’s more than double what Arkansas has now—eight. Arkansas’ charter school law—which is still more of an anti-charter law—allows for only 24 charter schools statewide, six per congressional district. So, sadly, not all these schools will become schools. 

Why not raise the cap on charter schools? Or eliminate it? Why squelch innovation because of some arbitrary number? But that’s an editorial rant for another day. Or at least another paragraph. Right now, we’re in smiley-face mode, happy to see this interest in better education. 

Anyway . . . . Some of these folks applying for charters want to open a school for professional-athletes-to-be, and some will focus so much on academics that they expect their students to graduate after earning not only a high school diploma but a two-year degree from a college. 

Why the jump in applications? We blame (and credit) the Arkansas Charter School Resource Center at the University of Arkansas. And its director, Caroline Proctor, who’s been on the recruiting trail, looking for possible charter schools and people to run them: 

“I just would call and say, ‘Have you ever thought of operating a charter school because I’ve heard you talk about XYZ,’ or ‘I’ve heard you talk about this or that need.’ So a lot of them got the ball rolling that way. I made many promises. I have told them, ‘I will hold your hand through the entire process.’ ” 

Ms. Proctor was a good choice to help with recruitment and start-up of charter schools. She got the A-Plus charter school in Maumelle off the ground and running fast. Till money problems threatened it—along with all those kids making impressive gains in the classroom. Miss Caroline may be more of the idea type than the management type, but her enthusiasm is needed. And it continues to bear fruit. So what sort of people would open a charter school, which is free from a lot of bureaucratic rules and regulations so long as it accomplishes its stated goals, that is, so long as it fulfills its charter? They’re people like Victoria and Richard Wilson of Stuttgart. Note this from Cynthia Howell’s story in Thursday’s paper:

Victoria and Richard Wilson of Stuttgart submitted a letter of intent on behalf of the Friends of Humphrey School, a nonprofit corporation, to establish the School of Excellence for grades six through 12 in Humphrey. Language and leadership will be the emphasis, with business and economics used throughout the curriculum, according to Victoria Wilson. “Spanish and Mandarin Chinese are the languages we will focus on,” she said. “We are in an agricultural area in the Delta. Those are the two mostneeded languages here: Mandarin for marketing and Spanish for labor.” 

Goodness. We’d never thought of it that way. Mandarin to go with Spanish? Clever people these charterists. And the more of them, the better. Also good for the U of A’s resource center, and the Walton Foundation that funds it. 

Conclusion: There’s not just a lot of Caroline Proctor going on around here, but a lot of other folks are interested in new, imaginative approaches to education, too. 

More power to ’em. 

NOW, BACK to that rant. (You knew we couldn’t stay happy all through an editorial about the state of education in Arkansas.) 

Why does this state limit the number of charter schools? Would the state limit the number of good schools, or good teachers? 

The next governor will have a lot to say about this question. What do the two major candidates say? Asa Hutchinson says bring on those charter schools: 

“For years, the focus in Arkansas has been almost exclusive on spending more money, when we should also be focusing on reform and innovative approaches to education to get better results for students. Public charter schools are a promising avenue for driving innovation in our public school system and helping students to learn more effectively.” 

So far, so good. 

What does Mike Beebe say about the subject? We searched all over his website, and looked at his proposals for education, but could find nary a word about charter schools. We even did one of those fancy computer tricks and tried to Find (applef) the word “charter” and but it didn’t show up. We read a lot about continuous learning and parental involvement and creating partnerships and, inevitably, how people are Arkansas’ best asset. The site even has some good things to say about merit pay, though it doesn’t call it that. But nothing about charter schools. 

We wondered why. So we called up campaign headquarters. A few minutes later, we got this in an email: “. . . as governor, Mike Beebe will bring together education experts to help determine which is the better way to increase and support public charter schools, raising the cap or doing away with it. But that alone does not address all of our education needs.” And so vaguely on. 

But close enough for government work. As best we can tell, General Beebe is going to delegate the question to the educrats and do whatever he’s told—which is one of the reasons public education in this state still needs so much work. 

Arkansas needs all the innovative, effective schools it can get (along with all the innovative, effective teachers). Whoever ends up winning the governor’s race this fall, we’d like the candidates to recognize the promise that charter schools represent. And act to fulfill it.