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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact:Paul Soutar 
June 12, 2009
(316) 634-0218
Moving Kansas Schools from Monopoly to Free Choice
The state-run K-12 school system in Kansas is essentially a monopoly. School choice –and the competition it brings – could improve school efficiency and quality.
Kansas spent more than $5.6 billion on K-12 education in the last school year. State and local taxcollections provided 93 percent of that money but state law offers no way for taxpayers to direct even apenny of it to a school of choice, unless that school is run by the government. They can choose to sendtheir child to a private school but they’re going to pay the state either way. For families living on a tightbudget that’s no choice at all. No vouchers. No tax credits. No real choice.There is no tuition for public charter schools.
Charters are designed to be innovative public schoolsoperating independently of the district board of education. A written charter promises certain programsor outcomes that the school must meet. Many operate successfully in economically depressed urbanareas giving parents an option other than a failing traditional public school.
Kansas has 36 operating public charter schools but unlike most other states, Kansas charter schools arenot truly independent. State law says they can only be authorized by school districts. That’s like BurgerKing having to ask McDonald’s for permission to open down the street. Even when local school districtsauthorize a charter school, there are obvious problems achieving the independence and educationaldifference charter schools are intended to offer.
Holman charter elementary
Chiquita Coggs is the executive director of the Northeast Business Association and author of the charterfor the Maurice R. Holman Academy of Excellence charter school. Coggs says USD 500 Kansas City isnot letting the school fulfill its charter obligations and is making Holman just like other district schools.“Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results,” Coggs said in arecent interview.She says the district has been slow to allow the school to implement innovative curriculum promised inthe school’s charter and made other important decisions without input from members of the site council.USD 500 officials are nearly doubling Holman’s enrollment for the next school year without adding anyteachers. The student-to-teacher ratio will go from about 12:1 to 23:1 even though the school’s charterpromises reduced class sizes. ”How can they give us the same curriculum and learning environment thatexists in the rest of the district and expect us to be different?”David Smith, a spokesperson for USD 500, says the district is working hard to provide equity and
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increased the school’s enrollment to the district average of 23students per teacher. “The charter school has the opportunity,through the resources it can raise, to buy additional teachers.”Kansas Department of Education figures say the district averageis 14.7, not 23. Smith called the discrepancy “apples and oranges”but offered no further explanation.Smith faults Holman’s site council, the advisory body whichreviews and advises on school policy, for not raising $200,000 tofund programs promised in the charter. Coggs admits fundraisingis going slow. “I was the person who said to the school board thatwe’d raise those funds. I never dreamed we’d have to raise thosefunds with a school that looks like the rest of the schools in thedistrict. Without the curriculum the school was designed to have itdidn’t look like the school it was supposed to be.”Earl Williams, Holman’s first principal, resigned at the end of theschool year. According to Coggs, the district chose a new principlewithin a few hours. “We had a meeting with the assistantsuperintendent and made a request to have input for a new principle and we were told, ‘I’m sorry, theassignment has already been made.’ We have no input. We are an advisory group and can’t adviseoutside what the district says.”“The state department of education says the charter organization should have some autonomy,” Coggssaid. “The only autonomy we have is a separate location from the central district office.”
Charters offer choice but need a strong foundation
The Kansas Department of Education web site says, “Charter schools in Kansas are independent publicschools that operate within a school district.” It identifies charter schools as an important tool in theeffort to improve schools. “School Restructuring requires new paradigms, new models and approaches,new ways of thinking, and new educational choices.”Kansas Board of Education member Walt Chappell sees charter schools as a way to provide morediversity in the way we educate our kids. “It’s like anything, if you have competition people will strivefor excellence.”Several national charter school organizations and federal guidelines list independence, innovation andaccountability as central requirements of charters. Some even say the schools should operate under anagreement between the state and the school, free from district bureaucracy.In spite of the problems at Holman, Coggs plans to do all she can to fulfill the school’s charter. She saysthe district has committed to starting the next school year with more of the curriculum promised in theschool’s charter and parents are happy to have an alternative.Doug Johnson, a member of Holman site council, says he’s encouraged about the school’s chances inspite of recent setbacks. “The district’s not really the enemy. If the law was written as in other stateswe’d answer directly to the state Department of Education.”He says parents are still excited about Holman. “These people know the potential hasn’t been realized
 
but they’ve latched on to the hope it will be realized. They have so little hope in the status quo.”Johnson gets his motivation from his experience as a small business owner. He’s been in business sellingo-rings since 1982. “People come through that door for a job and I give them a simple math test. I askthem to use a ruler, do some fractional math. They can’t draw a line three and one half inches long.We’ve lost all perspective on what an education is.”The Center for Education Reform, in its 2009 report, says charter schools nationwide are generally doingwell and generally outperforming traditional public schools in spite of higher numbers of low-incomestudents and fewer resources. “Those schools that have not performed, especially in states whose lawsensure objective oversight from independent authorizers, have been closed.”Even failing charter schools have one big advantage over failing public schools: children aren’t trappedin a failing charter school.The study gives Kansas a “D” grade for its, “very weak charter law” and says the majority of 10 charterschool closings in the state were caused by school board politics. “From funding shortfalls to pooroversight and the imposition of bureaucratichurdles, these charters were not given thesupport they needed to survive by theirsponsor. In the absence of multipleauthorizers and autonomy from the localschool districts, the data strongly suggeststhat accountability in Kansas iscompromised without objective oversight.”Chappell says he’s urged the state’s boardof education to look into possible conflictsbetween state and federal school choicelaws. “We want to look at what the federallaw allows and not have us locked only intostate law that prohibits establishment of acharter school without local districtapproval.”
Private schools, a free-market alternative
Private schools offer another alternative and teach about 38,000 students in Kansas. Their parents get norefund or voucher to recover some of the taxes they pay to support public education.“Those students are not budgeted for in Kansas. Independent schools are helping the state of Kansaswith their education,” said Tom Davis, President and Headmaster of Wichita Collegiate private school.That’s nearly another half billion dollars Kansas would have to budget to educate them at the 2009 stateaverage $12,554 per student.Davis says, “If people had that money in their pocket to spend we think we’d be a viable option.”Collegiate’s average tuition is $11,776. Collegiate’s tuition covers 99 percent of its operating expenses.“Our tuition opens the doors.” New construction and renovation projects are underwritten by friends of the school.
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