Proposed bill would send lowest performing schools to charter administration

North Carolina spent the fourth lowest amount of money per capita to fund its public K-12 education system of any state and Washington, D.C., in the United States in 2011-12, according to a report from the National Education Association.

The state is also ranked 32nd in the nation for student chance of success, according to the Education Week Research Center.

“We know we are not hitting the mark,” said N.C. House Rep. Rob Bryan, R-Mecklenburg. “We understand on some level we have got to be more creative, more nimble with change.”

Bryan introduced the Achievement School District bill in 2015, which would give control of the five worst performing public elementary school over to private charter school administration.

Proponents of the bill argue charter school administrators employ innovative methods that could benefit low-performing schools, and their lack of reliance on traditional supervising bodies gives them the freedom to create positive change, said April Talbott, a high school English teacher at Weaver Academy in Greensboro.

“I prefer the charter school environment because of the freedom it afforded me as an educator and the feeling of family it built between students, parents and teachers,” Talbott said. “Charter schools also have autonomy to make out-of-the-box academic decisions for their students, and they are often places where creativity in the classroom is more encouraged simply because the educational ‘island’ setting prevents too much red tape from restricting it.”

Though some charter schools excel, the charter model is not a guarantee of success, said Thad Domina, a UNC education professor.

“The evidence on charter school effectiveness is mixed,” Domina said. “The best research suggests that on average charters are no more or less effective than traditional public schools.”

And opponents suggest it might not be the efficiency-boosting, cost-saving measure intended.

“Handing over the keys of our lowest-performing schools to private charter school management operations adds a new layer of bureaucracy and lacks the accountability needed to ensure public taxpayers’ dollars are being used effectively,” said Rodney Ellis, president of the North Carolina Association of Educators. “This school takeover scheme is unproven at best.”

The bill has also drawn criticism for the potentially problematic way legislators would determine the lowest performing schools.

“I certainly do not believe that the A-to-F grading scale is fair to all students, and it should not be considered as the sole measure of success,” said Talbott, who supports the bill.

Ellis said there is additional concern that the A to F grading scale, which the bill proposes to use as its only measure, simply acts as a proxy for income.

“The identification of low-performing schools is based on a seriously flawed A-to-F grading system that does nothing more than point out where the less wealthy school districts are located,” he said. “Academic growth should be weighted more heavily in this system.”

Domina said there’s a need for fairer alternative.

“While we certainly ought to be dedicating special resources to schools that educate large proportions of poor and otherwise disadvantaged students, it makes little sense to label these schools ‘failing’ by dint of the disadvantages their students bring with them to school,” he said.

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