State School Board Mulls Charter Schools

By Dan Gorenstein on Wednesday, August 20, 2003.

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Later today the New Hampshire school board is expected to vote on two charter school proposals.

Supporters hope these will become the state’s first such schools.

Exeter and Franklin groups are already in line to capitalize on new law that allows charters to bypass local approval.

Opponents fear if accepted, the new schools will take funding away from existing public schools.

New Hampshire Public Radio’s Dan Gorenstein reports.

Fred Bramante believes the one-size-fits-all public high school model just doesn’t work.

That’s why the chair of the New Hampshire Board of Education supports charter schools.

He calls them alternative learning environments.

Track 4
:04 ...I think every educator knows kids learn in a variety of ways...i think creating alternative learning environments is a healthy thing to do. I would prefer that we do things in a way that makes the charter schools look less adversarial to the public schools, so that we are creating lots of alternative learning environments in the state.

Today, thanks to new law, Bramante will have a chance to help install the state’s first two alternative learning environments, when the state school board votes on proposals from Exeter and Franklin.

The state school board has approved charter schools in the past.

But in the past, local officials could trump any state school board decision.

Now, that decision rests almost exclusively with the state board.

Legislation passed this spring allows the state board to authorize up to two new charter schools a year.

Bill Grimm and his group the Franklin Business Education Alliance may be one of the first.

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:10 Franklin kids are as good as anybody else, they are good kids, they have gotten, there is an acceptatnac of lower standards...and I think a number of people thought there is a better way to do this...there is too many kids coming out of the system that are not prepared for the rest of their life, and it’s not a positive for the community either...i just look at this as a marvelous opportunity.

It’s marvelous, in part, says Grimm, because the new law addresses one of charter school critics’ biggest concerns...money.

Beginning next July, any high school that loses a student to charter schools will receive a transitional grant worth about 4 thousand dollars to help offset any funding loss.

Grimm says Franklin’s high school dropout rate clearly suggests the town needs to educate at least some of its students differently.

The Franklin group, says Grimm, has modeled their school on a program out of Providence, Rhode Island.

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2:30 it has many connections with local businesses, that helps kids with not only academic classes, but work related classes with the community, they are not just entry level, working at burger king, they are working in mentoriship things and see how it works, see how to become a part of that. And why they need the tools and education so they can perform in some of these things, and go into those jobs.

State school board member Judy Reever served on the Laconia school board for 21 years.

She’s got mixed feelings about charter schools.

But she’s really clear about any law that bypasses local oversight.

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:56 NH of all the states, we pride ourselves on local control, and doesn’t this fly in the face of local control? Aren’t we saying to people, yeah, local control, but!

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:06 I am not sure there is a local control issue here,...

State education board chairman Fred Bramante.

... b/c it’s not local tax dollars. It’s state dollars, and other monies...Does the state have the right to do it? I think the state does have the right to do it. if these local groups can find money to make these happen, then I don’t see the issue.

Regardless of the local control issue, Bill Grimm says a charter school will pull in federal and private dollars that wouldn’t come any other way.

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2:22...the key to this whole thing is there is a limited amount of money that goes to kids in this community that is raised locally...so what we have tried to do is find a different funding source, it happens to be called a charter school...the basic concept was how do you help these kids when you are not going to be able to spend more money.

Franklin school board member Bill McCain worries existing schools will lose valuable resources if charter schools are approved.

Even with the transitional grant from the state, McCain says nothing has alleviated that fear.

11:02 (less cost, less students) when we turn on the lights in the morning it’s the same lights, doesn’t matter how many students are there. When we run the busess, it’s the same number....if you are talking about ten out of each grade...ten juniors out of the class, it’s not going to make a difference, b/c you can’t lose a teacher...we have the same cost for heat, internet, there’s just not this big reduction in cost.

The school board is slated to vote on the matter later this afternoon.

For NHPR News, I’m DG.