Effectiveness of good program limited by cap

You would think these would be good days for North Carolina charter schools. President Obama's Race-to-the-Top program has sought to increase the number and quality of charter schools in the states and seeks to reward states that do so. In addition, public support seems to be turning in favor of charter schools. A January 2010 Civitas Institute Poll found 56 percent of North Carolina voters favored lifting the cap on charter schools, compared to only 24 percent of voters who opposed lifting the state-imposed limit of 100 charter schools.

Despite the public pronouncements and growing support for charter schools, however, it looks as if the state's education and political leaders have not gotten the memo. Over the past year, state bureaucrats and lawmakers have worked to limit the number and the autonomy of charter schools.

This past legislative session saw numerous bills to lift the cap on charter schools get bottled up in committee or fail to pass, despite widespread public support and about 16,000 students on charter-school waiting lists.

In August 2009, the State Board of Education approved rules to close a charter school if the school failed to meet expected growth and composite score requirements in any two years of a three-year period. Interestingly, the rules apply only to charter schools and not traditional public schools. If public schools fail, they receive additional financial support and resources. If charter schools fail, they close. Why the double standard?

The state's desire to be competitive for Race-to-the-Top funds gave lawmakers the opportunity to correct disparities in funding and strengthen the autonomy of charter schools. Instead of seizing the opportunity, legislative leaders worked to weaken charter schools.

In May, Gov. Bev Perdue signed legislation that allows the state to convert as many as 135 low-performing schools to charter schools. The conversion is made with the condition that the schools be run -- not by private boards of directors, as all charter schools in North Carolina are -- but by the local school board. Transferring control from a private board to a public-school board not only limits the school's independence, but also challenges the very nature of a charter school.

North Carolina state statutes require Local Education Agencies (LEAs) to equitably appropriate operating funds to both public and charter schools. Regrettably, many LEAs have not followed the law. In Sugar Creek v. Charlotte Mecklenburg School District (CMS), the North Carolina Court of Appeals ruled that CMS violated state statute by not equitably distributing per-pupil share of operating funds between traditional public and charter schools. As part of the decision the court ordered CMS to pay out $5.5 million to 10 charter schools in Union County.

One would think the legislature would have supported the court's enforcement of a law that it had drafted and passed. Not so. While LEAs are still responsible for appropriating equitable amounts of per-pupil current expense funds to both traditional public schools and charter schools, this year's state budget contained provisions that give LEAs more flexibility in how to calculate current expense funds (i.e., which funds are included in the calculation). The new guidelines, by default, allow LEAs to tweak their funding calculations in such a way as to short-change charter schools relative to their traditional public-school counterparts.

Charter school supporters have been working for years to allow schools the right to compete for capital funding in the same way that traditional public schools do. North Carolina provides no direct public assistance to charter schools for capital costs. State Attorney General Roy Cooper has ruled that the current law doesn't allow charter schools to even request appropriations from the state's capital outlay fund.

Historically, charter schools typically spend between 20-30 percent of operating funds on facility costs, funding that could otherwise go toward instruction if charter schools had access to capital funds from the state. With Race-to-the-Top awarding states that equitably distribute revenue between traditional public schools and charter schools, one might think now was the time when charter schools might finally make headway on securing funding for capital costs. Unfortunately, North Carolina lawmakers felt otherwise. A budget amendment which made charter schools eligible for up to $50 million in capital funds was actually approved by the House. However, after discussions with teachers unions, the legislative leadership removed the provision from the final version of the state budget.

North Carolina charter schools have been serving the educational needs of young people for 15 years. Increasingly, students, families and the general public see the valuable opportunities these schools afford to people of all different economic and social backgrounds.

Evidently a strong record of public support and student success is not sufficient to gather legislative support for charter schools. The case of charter schools provides yet another example of the powerful interests of teachers unions and how they thwart the public interest and deny thousands of children an opportunity to attend better schools.

Robert Luebke is a senior policy analyst for Civitas Institute in Raleigh.


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