PolicyReport

FocalPoint | 05

Bad charter schools can be closed down— simply for not performing well. Many parents, and policymakers for that matter, are unaware of this fact.

Most policymakers understand that charter schools are public schools. Many parents understand that charter schools offer them a broader choice of schools: every time a charter school opens, there is a new option for their children where there wasn’t one before.

However, most people are unfamiliar with a very important fact about charter schools: they are more accountable to taxpayers than regular public schools. In Illinois, charter schools are formed after a non-profit community group or charitable organization reaches an agreement with school district officials. The community group is granted a “charter” to open its own independent public school. The charter agreement spells out performance goals for the school.

In order to meet those goals, charter schools are granted freedom from burdensome red tape. However, if a charter school fails to meet the goals set forward in its charter agreement, state or local officials can revoke its charter and close the school down. Accountability, as it turns out, is in the very name of “charter” schools.

Charter schools in Illinois by-and-large outperform comparable public schools. Parents, through choice, are often able to pressure the schools to meet the needs of their children. However, sometimes local authorities must intervene and, either pressure a slow-starting charter school to improve, or even shut it down before it becomes just another failing public school— something Illinois has far too many of already.

Consider the example of Robertson Charter School in Decatur. Robertson enrolls

elementary and middle school students. The school serves a disproportionately high number of disadvantaged students: 92 percent of students enrolled at Robertson are classified as low income, compared to a district-wide average of 65 percent.

During its first five years of operation, Robertson performed at or below the district average on combined measures of perform- ance for low-income students. Both the district and the charter school were displeased with Robertson’s “average” performance.

In 2006, both school and district officials agreed that if Robertson again failed to meet performance targets, the school could be closed at any time. In the two years since then, Robertson has made impressive yearly improvements in student learning, and enroll-ment has climbed by more than 53 percent.

Today, Robertson is bursting at the seams. The Decatur Herald reports the school is aggressively seeking new real estate for a middle school campus. School leaders are considering the possibility of opening a Robertson charter high school.

Moreover, in the wake of Robertson’s success, sources indicate local officials are entertaining the option of welcoming other established charter school operators to help tackle Decatur’s many schooling challenges. This news is welcome to parents and taxpayers in the Decatur community who, for too long, have had to cope with a failing public school system. They will have a wider array of choices from innovative, more accountable schools.

Polling demonstrates that the more people know about Robertson’s story (the more they know about accountability through charter schools), the more support they show for the charter school movement.

Whereas charter schools in Illinois are clearly outperforming their public school peers, many people have yet to become familiar with them. Earlier this year the Illinois Network of Charter Schools conducted a robust public opinion poll in three downstate cities: Springfield, Peoria and Rockford. Currently, only Springfield has a charter school, the high-performing Ball Charter School. So perhaps it isn’t surprising that the public is unfamiliar with basic facts about charter schools.

On average, only 14.7 percent of those polled admitted to knowing “quite a bit” or “a great deal” about charter schools. Without a common understanding of what charter schools are, 54.7 percent of those polled had no opinion of charter schools; on average, only 37.3 percent supported the idea having a charter school open in their area.

However, when those same people were then provided a definition of charter schools and made aware that charter schools are more innovative and more accountable than traditional public schools, support for charter schools went through the roof. Once informed on the issue, 72.3 percent of those polled supported the idea of opening a charter school in their community.

It has been reported that both Peoria and Rockford are considering opening new charter schools in their communities. In fact, Chicago International Charter School has been invited to apply to expand upon its success in Chicago and to open a charter high school in Rockford.

If reformers in these Illinois communities hope to bring charter schools to town, they must aggressively spread the word that charter schools expand school choice and provide new, more innovative options within the public school system. Additionally, as experience shows, local reformers would do well to spread the word that charter schools —more so than regular public schools—are held accountable for their results.

Checks & BalancesAccountability creates better choices for education

by Collin Hitt