Fight begins over charter schools

Republicans often claim to have a monopoly on education reform, frequently sponsoring legislation for parental choice and other innovations designed to improve performance and competition within our monolithic public education system. While it is true that the Democratic Party relies heavily on the teacher union for financial support and reliable shoe leather, not all Democratic elected officials are blinded by that special interest group.

The earliest experiment with school vouchers (whereby public education funds are paid to whatever school a student chooses to attend, including private and religious schools) was in Milwaukee, Wis. and was widely supported by civil rights and minority groups as well as Republicans. Similar experiments are being tried in minority areas in Washington, DC and Baltimore, Md. Voucher plans have been bitterly opposed by teacher unions but have been implemented with bipartisan legislative majorities.

Charter schools are still another parental choice innovation. The charter school movement began in Minnesota in 1991 followed by California in 1992. Since then 19 states, including Nevada, have adopted charter school laws. Charter schools are non-profits usually organized and run by parents. As each student enrolls he brings his/her state per student funding which is then paid to the charter school instead of the school district.

The Nevada legislation was introduced in 1997 by State Sen. Maurice Washington (R - Sparks), Valerie Weiner (D - Las Vegas), Jon Porter (R - Henderson) and Ernie Adler (D - Carson City). The Nevada Education Association (teacher union) gave grudging assent to the proposal due to the bipartisan support but insisted on some restrictions such as a prohibition on conversions of existing county schools to charters, a limit on the number of charters in Nevada and a requirement that charter governing boards have at least three teachers. The law provided that the Nevada State Board of Education and county school districts could issue charters; Nevada universities were later added as chartering authorities.

Although the legislation was relatively restrictive compared to California and Arizona, a number of parent and citizen groups got together to form charter schools. Currently there are 23 charters in Nevada including eight in Washoe County. Charters tend to serve students who, for a number of reasons, do not do as well in one-size-fits-all district run schools. In Washoe County, charters include a school for profoundly gifted students, an academy of science, a dual language school, a school for recovering drug addicts, a school specializing in homeless students and a school teaching the construction trades in addition to required core curricula.

Recently, another incidence of bipartisan cooperation arose in connection with Nevada's charter school law. The original language provided that chartering authorities "shall" grant a charter to any applicant group that meets the law's requirements. NSBOE staff went to legislators and asked that "shall" be changed to "may" because there was no way to turn down unmeritorious charter applicants. The law was changed but then both the Clark County School District and the Washoe County School District used the change to impose a moratorium on new charters because, they alleged, they "lacked the staff to supervise charter schools." Last month the NSBOE also voted a moratorium on new charters. Big mistake! State Sen. Washington, who chairs the Senate Education Committee, and Assemblywoman Bonnie Parnell (D - Carson City) who chairs the Assembly Education Committee, jointly warned the chartering agencies not to preempt state policies on charter schools by adopting moratoria. When they were ignored they jointly ordered legislation drawn for the 2009 session that will disestablish the NSBOE and replace it with a board appointed by the governor.

As Carson City School Trustee Joe Enge points out: "In light of the lack of confidence many lawmakers already have in the NSBOE, dismissing warnings from Sen. Washington and Assemblywoman Parnell is not the hallmark of wisdom."

It should be fun to see this play out next year when the legislature convenes. And it will be a fight that Democrats and Republicans can agree on.

Jim Clark is president of Republican Advocates, a vice chair of the Washoe County GOP and a member of the Nevada GOP Central Committee.