Learning curve

Page 3 of 4 -- In the case of Lynn, both the city officials and the charter proponents mounted compelling arguments. The issues here were financial, not philosophical, said district officials. "Two years ago, we lost $2.4 million of additional revenue we'd expected to receive," said Bill Bochnak, the deputy chief of staff and educational policy advisor for the Lynn mayor's office, referring to the massive cuts in state aid to local districts. "Everyone -- city officials, schools, teachers, administrators -- had to make sacrifices."

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In addition, Lynn was still smarting from its last encounter with charters. In 2002, Lynn's only other charter, the 246-student Lynn Community Charter School, was ordered closed by the state Board of Education for its shabby academics and organizational disarray -- after costing the district approximately $1.9 million for each of its five years in existence. (To date, this is the only charter school in all of Massachusetts ever to be shut down for poor performance.)

By many accounts, the city of Lynn had a special case on its hands. But as Marc Kenen, the executive director of the Massachusetts Charter School Association, sees it, Lynn is representative of school districts across the country that are resistant to charters encroaching on their territory.

"The truth is, there are many districts who claim they can't afford to have charter schools," says Kenen. "From my point of view, these are exactly the places that can't afford *not to." Seen from a different angle, Kenen suggests, the issue of money raises a basic philosophical question. "There is an assumption that the money belongs to the system, not to the kids," he says.

Still, in many states, Massachusetts among them, the district is reimbursed at 100 percent, 60 percent, and then 40 percent for the first three years a student attends a charter. In effect, says Kenen, districts are paid twice -- 200 percent over three years -- for a student they are no longer educating. These three years should give districts time to adapt, he says, "but unfortunately, public schools are under the thumb of such slow-moving bureaucracies, they often simply don't."

This is precisely why charters are so important, argues Chester Finn Jr., coauthor of the 1997 book "Charter Schools in Action" (updated in 2000) and the president of the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation, a conservative Washington, D.C.-based research group focused on education reform. A champion of the charter school movement (and former assistant education secretary in the Reagan administration), Finn believes the current public education system is built around adult interests, rather than kids' needs. Textbook companies, school boards, teacher unions, and central administration all have a stake in every decision.

"How can change and innovation ever take hold in an environment so stymied by adult interests?" asks Finn. Something has to push public schools to pick up their pace, he argues, and introducing competition might just be it. "If we say to public schools, `We'll take away your kids, your budget, and your reputation,' this should be a cold shower to open up their eyes."   Continued...