Stop ignoring charter problems. Fix them.

Curt Fuchs
·4 min read

I read with interest the article in your paper written by Ms. Pendergrass from the Show-Me Institute in St. Louis entitled “what’s so scary about a charter school in Boone?” Unfortunately, Ms. Pendergrass ignored the problems that have plagued charters in Missouri for years.

We need to clarify that charters are not “charter schools” in Missouri. They are “charter districts” with most of the rights, privileges and responsibilities of the local school district. By law, charters are equal to our local school district. This is an important concept.

Every legislative session, the charter lobbyists keep beating the drum for the expansion of charter districts. Instead of focusing on expansion of charters, legislators need to fix the glaring problems associated with the current charter law. Having worked as a liaison to the charters while working at DESE, I see both good and bad about charter districts. Residents of Boone County should be concerned with the following CHARTER PROBLEMS that Ms. Pendergrass failed to include in her article:

  • Accountability—the charter districts have no accountability to the tax payers of Boone County as they operate. The school board of these districts are hand picked by the charter officials without any elections. Rarely, is there any oversite by the local elected school board. As a matter of fact, a very common term within the charter community is “autonomy”. When it comes to educational policy, I find autonomy repulsive and instead would want collaboration.

  • Closures—The fact is, since charter districts have been implemented in Kansas City and St. Louis, 1/3 of these charter districts have closed. A 66% success rate should be unacceptable to all Missourians, but especially our legislators. This success rate does not portend well for expansion purposes. I have seen firsthand the chaos created when charter districts closed. Students, parents, and staff members were in complete disarray. It is still happening, one charter in St. Louis closed a couple of weeks before the start of the current school year. Taxpayers in Kansas City and St. Louis along with Missouri taxpayers have wasted over $750 million dollars that was invested in charters that closed over the years.

  • Local Control—We have local school boards that are responsible for the education of our students in Boone County. How the charter community can think it is appropriate to just march in to Boone County and say, we are going to set up charter districts without public approval is disheartening. I know their response is school choice. Interestingly, in Columbia, we have school choice already. CPS has STEM schools, a fine arts school, and an integrated collaborative learning school. I encourage the local school board to invest more in expanding magnet options.

  • Loss of Revenues—Ms. Pendergrass admitted in her article that school districts could lose revenue. It is astonishing that in some cases, local and state tax dollars are used to recruit students away from the local school district. Recently, a charter district was using taxpayer dollars to sue the State of Missouri for attempting to close the charter for poor performance.

In search of a solution, we look to other states and their charter laws. What you find is it depends on how charters are designated in each state. In some states charters are schools and some they are districts. If a charter is designated as a school, the problems we are experiencing in Missouri could be resolved. With a designation of school, charters would be a part of the local school district with some accountability to the local elected school board, but they still could have their own boards with the ability to implement their independent programs—like the magnet schools in CPS. If charter schools were part of the local school district, one would expect fewer closures. Having access to all of the educational resources (busing, buildings, special education, CORE data, etc.) would make it so much easier to be successful.

The Missouri Legislature could solve the problems associated with charters by designating charters as schools. The question is “will” the legislature continue to ignore the problems with charters or will they attempt to solve the issues so that expansion of charters can proceed and prosper in Missouri?

It comes back to the question of “autonomy” versus “collaboration”. I vote for “collaboration” for the betterment of OUR STUDENTS. If the designation of charter schools works in other states, it should in Missouri and especially Boone County. Legislators have an obligation to solve the charter problems. They can’t just continue to pass legislation to expand charters and ignore the elephant in the room.

Back to Ms. Pendergrass, Boone County residents do remain scared (actually concerned) about charter schools in our county. We would appreciate your commitment and willingness to help solve the problems identified regarding charter districts before implementation in Boone County.

Curt Fuchs Ph.D. is a retired CPS educator with 43 years of public school experience and a Boone County taxpayer.

This article originally appeared on Springfield News-Leader: Stop ignoring charter problems. Fix them.