Class Warfare

Philadelphians want more charter schools. So why won't we open them?

by Tim Daniels

Philadelphia's 53 public charter schools have been recognized for providing a safe learning environment and for improving test scores under No Child Left Behind. These schools' Adequate Yearly Progress results raised the combined average of all Philadelphia schools above 50 percent. The combination of a positive, safe learning environment and improving student achievement probably accounts for the presence of over 20,000 students on waiting lists for Philadelphia charter schools.

Philadelphia charter public schools are the most successful form of educational reform in the city. So it was puzzling no new charter schools opened this year for the first time in nine years. Seven additional schools were approved, but delayed for a year, right when the critical mass of Philadelphia charter public schools is set to expand a demonstrably successful base of student participation and achievement.

The American Federation of Teachers called for a "moratorium" on the opening of additional Philadelphia charter public schools. This is the same interest group that opposed charter school legislation back in 1997, when Act 22 was passed by an overwhelming bipartisan majority of the Pennsylvania General Assembly.

Implying there are now enough charter schools, the AFT says the district's charters already offer "a tremendous amount of choice for the citizens of Philadelphia." What about the 20,000 students on waiting lists?

Interest continues to grow. Charter school enrollment in Pennsylvania stands at more than 60,000 with a waiting list of more than 26,000. Forty-two groups applied for charter school planning grants last year.

A recent statewide poll reveals that 65 percent of Pennsylvanians support allowing communities to continue creating new charter public schools. That's 4 percentage points higher than last year.

How do you support the continued expansion of charter public schools in Philadelphia? It's all about effective school administration. I was the business manager of the Upper Darby School District in the 1980s. I am old enough to remember and to have survived "declining enrollment," a phenomenon of the baby boom bust that challenged all educational institutions both in basic and higher education. We scaled the operation. We sold buildings, we reduced the staff and we cut supply and central staff expense in direct proportion to the declining enrollment. The basic question is, has this happened in Philadelphia the past nine years with a 13 percent enrollment decline? If so, balancing the budget should be easier. Charter schools cost less per child than regular public education, plus the district gets a generous refund from the state for every student enrolled in a charter school. So charter school students are a bargain and a windfall for the School District of Philadelphia. If all students in Philadelphia attended charter public schools, the education budget could be cut in half.

Some school administrators will say otherwise, citing problems of fixed costs and problems in redistricting. Some say they were unaware of the current $73 million budget shortfall. What I don't understand is how an administration known primarily for business acumen wouldn't know about the budget problem until four months after the close of the fiscal year. I don't understand why the administration wouldn't have scaled the operation to the gradually declining enrollment over the last four years.

The solution proposed by the AFT for the current budget problem is to propose a moratorium on new charter schools. Further, this moratorium wouldn't take effect until the fall of 2008! The budget problem is now. The proposed solution won't impact this year's budget. The problem and the solution make no mathematical sense.

The figure of $4.6 million in unanticipated cost for charters is small compared to the $73 million deficit. And, this amount is a pittance compared to the total budget of $2.04 billion. In a year when the Philadelphia School District is committing more than $60 million to one small new high school, what might be sacrificed in the growth of charter public schools is truly tragic. It certainly doesn't reflect what the citizens of Philadelphia want.

Tim Daniels is the executive director of the Pennsylvania Coalition of Charter Schools.