Document text
Salem studies charters Photo by Bob Pennell Valley Web general manager Todd Reichenbach leads a tour of Renaissance School students from Eagle Point through the press room where their school newspaper will be printed. Legislation would help new type of public school get funding By VICKI GUARINO Educators who have been struggling to build a new style of public school were pleased Monday to see progress in legislation that could bring money to their efforts. Proposed legislation now in the state Senate would allow charter schools to win federal funds. It also would allow charter schools to seek a sponsor other than their local school board if the board turns them down. Other entities qualified to charter school would include a university, an education service district or, as a last resort, the State Board of Education. "We in Oregon are missing millions of dollars," says Eagle Point charter school principal Shannon Sanders, "millions of federal dollars because Oregon does not have a charter school law." Charter schools operate under local school board jurisdiction but are free of many public school standards. Ashland High School's Wilderness Charter School, for instance, follows a more free-form schedule of field trips so that students can participate in wildlife projects. A new state law, say charter school teachers, would give the schools the legal standing they need for U.S. Department of Education funding. "It will make it much, much easier if we can get federal funding," says Wilderness School teacher Sue Parrish. As it is, the schools are losing money. Sanders says the school she heads, the Renaissance School, for grades five through eight, lost a $30,000 U.S. Department of Education grant in September because Oregon lacked sufficient legislation. So an already tight budget for the fine arts-based curriculum drew tighter. The school found lodging in a church for low rent, obtained some small grants, and has been scrimping to get by. The school district pays the wages for Sanders and a teacher, but little more. For a while, Sanders cooked school meals, and kids still do the dishes. "It has been exhausting," Sanders says. "Right now we're struggling to find toilet paper and paper towels." Federal funds have been flowing to charter schools around the country for about three years in an effort to promote innovative and flexible programs. The programs like those in Eagle Point and Ashland rely heavily on parent and community involvement and support. For example, Ashland's 20 charter students are working in internships around town, says Parrish, and will be assisting as visitor guides in Crescent City during the spring whale migration. Ashland senior Venture Merz says the hands-on experiences in the charter school broaden academics and expose students to more skills. "I've been a straight-A student," Merz says, "but with this I am learning so much more, doing so much more." In Eagle Point, parents and students helped teachers create the Renaissance School because they believed students would gain more by using the arts to approach academics. About 40 youngsters are enrolled. Volunteer arts teacher Michael Hammond, a Trail potter, says the Renaissance School is getting by on the interest and enthusiasm of the community, but federal funding should be available as it is elsewhere. "This is affecting people at the grass-roots level," Hammond says. Only a handful of such schools are operating in Oregon. Charter school legislation has been made a top priority by Senate Republicans, but it has detractors among both Republicans and Democrats. Critics worry that the legislation could undermine public school funding, and that it could bring unlicensed teachers into school rooms. "A lot of the concerns are fear-based," says Sanders. If anything, she says, charter schools are more accountable for students' academic performance than traditional public schools. The charters are schools of choice for parents and students and because of that, they will have to constantly market themselves to parents. If parents become unhappy with their child's progress at a charter school, they simply could return the youngster to the local school. Hannon doesn't like charter school idea By PETER WONG SALEM -- When it comes up for a vote in the Senate next week, state Sen. Lenn Hannon is likely to be one of the few Republican opponents of a bill that would allow charter schools, tax-supported schools that are free of most state requirements. Charter-school legislation failed narrowly in the 1997 session, but Republican legislative leaders have made it an early priority this session. But Hannon, an Ashland Republican and his party's senior member, isn't going along. "If we've put curriculum in place and mandated certain achievement standards for students, and now we're told everything we've done to this point is either not working or needs to be changed through the concept of charter schools, it raises questions to me," Hannon said. "I am a firm believer that if something is wrong, we should fix it, not abandon it. "Racial segregation was repealed in the 1960s. What charter schools would do is separate those who would perhaps receive a better education at the expense of those remaining in the public schools. But I believe in a strong public school system, not a diluted version." Hannon spoke in an interview the day after the Senate Education Committee voted 4-3 along party lines to move Senate Bill 100 to a vote of the full Senate next week. Hannon may be joined by Sen. Verne Duncan, R-Milwaukie, who voted for the bill in committee; but the former state superintendent of public instruction may oppose it on the Senate floor. But Republican legislative leaders are unlikely to have released the bill from committee without receiving assurances of the 16 votes required to pass it through the Senate and on to the House. The bill is a high priority for critics of how public schools are run. "It's about opening up choices and opportunities for parents and teachers," said Richard Meinhard of Portland, an educator and parent who organized a group in favor of charter-schools legislation. "Why shouldn't we allow parents to choose a publicly chartered school run by someone other than a school district? Why shouldn't school boards have the choice to contract with someone other than the district for public education services?" Meinhard spoke at a news conference sponsored by the Cascade Policy Institute, a Portland think-tank organization that espouses less government. But Hannon said he sees the legislation as a diversion of state support for public schools -- "it's a self-defeating move" -- and a potential step toward state tax credits for private schooling. "I believe in educational choice," he said. "But if you want it, it also comes with the responsibility that you pay your own way. Taxpayers should not be used to subsidize what you choose." Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA