Charter Schools Seek Support; With Funding Worries, Future Remains Cloudy

By MELANIE ASMAR

A line of 50 charter school proponents snaked around the perimeter of room 207 in the Legislative Office Building, as the House Education Committee listened to supporters’ pleas for more state money for the cash-strapped schools.

"There are 400 kids whose education hangs in the balance," said Mark Aimone, chairman of the trustees of the Seacoast Charter School in Exeter.

The future of public charter schools in New Hampshire is uncertain, mostly because the amount of state funding they receive remains a question mark. Two bills before the House would change that.

One, which the committee heard Tuesday, would give charter schools $7,000 per student in state aid, which is nearly double the $3,700 they receive now. The other, which will be heard next Thursday, is more complicated. It would require school districts to pay charter schools 80 percent of what it would cost them to educate each child who chooses a charter school instead of a traditional public school.

The House Education Committee voted 16-3 yesterday to send the first bill to a committee for interim study. The dissenting members said they would’ve rather done something right away.

"We need to do something now to help these schools," said Rep. Sharon Carson, a Londonderry Republican who was one of the three. "Just delaying it is going to put them in further peril."

Without an infusion of state money, seven charter schools are in danger of closing next year, proponents say. Two others are in better financial shape because they’re supported – at least partly – by their local school districts. In the 3 1/2 years since the first charter schools opened their doors in the fall of 2004, two have closed for lack of students. Two others are scheduled to open this fall.

Only one of the state’s 10 open charter schools could operate solely on the $3,700 in state aid per student. Because of its unique structure, the CSI Charter School in Penacook could stay open, Director Paulette Fitzgerald said, but finances would be tight. The school, aimed at helping high school dropouts graduate, is open only three days a week for two hours in the morning and two hours at night.

"Our program is a little different, so the finances are a little different," Fitzgerald said. "We should be able to stay afloat, but it will be very, very tight. . . . Certainly the extra money would help us to grow."

The saga of state charter schools began in 2004. Charter schools are small, mission-driven schools that, advocates say, can educate students for less money than traditional public schools. In 2003, lawmakers passed a law making it easier to obtain charters by allowing the state Board of Education to authorize them instead of requiring approval from local districts. That same year, the state received a $7.2 million, three-year federal charter school start-up grant.

Almost immediately, charter schools ran into trouble. Their struggle was epitomized by the Franklin Career Academy, a charter school for at-risk students. Local district officials refused to pass along the state aid owed to the charter school, claiming the loss of money would hurt their own students.

Lawmakers soon fixed the system so aid was distributed directly to the charter schools. But the aid – which has hovered just above $3,500 per student since 2005 – wasn’t as much as charter school proponents had hoped to receive. Schools made up the difference with the federal start-up money.

But the federal grant ran out last summer, and the state Department of Education didn’t win the $5 million extension it asked for. It’s applying again this year, but supporters’ hopes are dimmer.

Instead, they’re pinning their hopes on the state Legislature, which has money woes of its own.

"I understand the governor said he was looking at (spending) extra money only for emergencies" this year, state Board of Education member Fred Bramante told the House Education Committee.

"I consider this an emergency," he said.

So do the teachers, parents and students involved with charter schools. Several spoke at Tuesday’s hearing. Franklin Career Academy sophomore Jake Maynard said he came to the charter school to "get away from the large class sizes that hindered my education."

There’s ample evidence that students are succeeding academically at charter schools, although much of it is anecdotal. Schools report more graduates, higher test scores and more engaged students. Parents praise the schools and often show up in force to lobby lawmakers for more funding.

But there has been no statewide study of whether students are making the grade. The state Department of Education has had trouble paying for staff to oversee the state’s charter schools. That issue and others were detailed in a consultant’s report released last month by the department.

Conducted by an educational consulting company called Class Measures, the report’s purpose was to give lawmakers, educators and parents a "snapshot" of the status of charter schools, it said.

Some of its findings were grim. Because federal funding for charter schools has dried up, the department has had to cut its charter school staff from three full-time employees to one part- time employee. Therefore, the report said, the department can’t regulate the schools as well.

"Because the charter school accountability process is not fully implemented," it said, "accountability for raising student achievement and realizing unique school missions continue to be elusive goals."

In addition to problems with state funding, the report said some schools had trouble finding and keeping quality trustees; others have had contentious relationships with local school districts.

Linda Stockwell, the development director for the Cocheco Arts and Technology Academy charter school in Barrington, said yesterday she worries that the second House bill – the one that would require districts to pay charter schools 80 percent of their costs per child – would make charter schools’ relationships with local schools even worse, causing a repeat of what happened in Franklin.

"It reinforces the thinking that charter schools take away from traditional public schools," Stockwell said. "And we’re trying to be cooperative. . . . We don’t want to exacerbate the situation."

Proponents said they were disappointed yesterday that the simpler of the two bills – which would have directed $7,000 per student in state aid to the schools – wasn’t immediately recommended by the committee. Bill Wilmot, head of the Seacoast Charter School and an active member in the newly formed New Hampshire Public Charter School Association, said the schools need help soon.

But Rep. Kim Casey, an East Kingston Democrat and the prime sponsor of the first bill, is hopeful. She said she’d rather divert the bill to a study committee, where it will possibly be combined with the second bill, rather than send it straight to the House Finance Committee, where it could be killed.

"This gives us the chance to combine the bills and make them more palatable," Casey said.

In the end, Wilmot said, the only thing that matters is that the schools get the money they need to survive.

By MELANIE ASMAR

Monitor staff

Originally published by MELANIE ASMAR Monitor staff.

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