MEA didn’t do homework on public charter schools

The response to the public charter school movement that was aired on Channel 5, Feb. 26, by Robert Walker of the Maine Education Association, shows that not only has Walker not done any research on the subject of public charter schools, but also is either unaware of the Maine Department of Education’s own statistics on our teenage dropouts, or worse, indifferent. Money seems to be the be-all and end-all reason the MEA won’t support another publicly funded school.

Walker cites the budget shortfall as a reason to not “divert public funds” at this time. If the research had been done, this reasoning makes no sense. Not only do federal charter school grants bring money into state education agencies – up to $5 million – to be allocated by the state as the charters are approved, alternative education programs around the state can be converted into chartered schools, and we would see a long-term improvement in completion rates in our high schools. The threat of the charter school system is a myth.

According to the Maine Department of Education’s statistics, our statewide dropout rates approach 2,000 students a year, for the last four years. A starting class of freshmen in Maine can expect close to 8,000 of their peers to drop out before graduation. In eight years, we are looking at approximately 16,000 young adults without a high school diploma, and in 12 years, 24,000 people who have not completed high school. This is not an exemplary situation. To say that our schools don’t need help, and to cite highly criticized standardized test scores as the reason, means little more than a “standardized” percentage of the population of students is around long enough to take the tests – and has learned how to do it.

Charter high schools are designed to offer parents and students an option, without private high school cost. Parents who can afford to take their kids out of public schools are doing it. Parents who have the lifestyle to home school their kids are doing it. We have got to stop using money as an excuse to ignore serious issues in our schools. The students we serve are as diverse as the working world, there are multiple ways of learning and of assessing learning, and I, for one, am tired of responsible adults sticking their heads in the sand when it comes to educating all our students. If that means changing our methodology, having smaller class sizes and later start times, then that should be an option. What is going to be costly is not doing it.

It’s easy to cite the “budget shortfall.” It’s here and now, and it’s on paper somewhere. It’s a reactive statement to what is truly a genuine problem in Maine. But how about being proactive for a change? How about looking four years from now and seeing how much money we’re spending on drug rehabilitation, welfare and state aid to the homeless? Our mills are shutting down, our students are leaving the state to go to college and find jobs, and all the Maine Association of Charter Schools is asking for is a chance to use federal money to stop the cycle.

If spokespeople from MEA did their homework, they would realize that the power they wield should be for the good of all of our students, and the people of Maine. They should be hearing from parents before they say that all is well. And every option to make schools work for students should be considered. There is no competition for the MEA, decisions are not challenged and policy change is rare.

Currently, 2,000 students in Maine are not getting the education to which they have a right; parents who don’t live in tuitioned districts don’t have a school option, and only those families with the means to send their children to private school or home school them are assuring themselves that their children are receiving the best possible education. Public education is a good system, there’s no denying that – but school reform isn’t working. We need to start from the ground up for some students, educators need to work as a team, and we need to role-model compassion and concern for all our students.

Cheryl Saliwanchik-Brown has been an educator in Maine for 12 years, is a representative of the Maine Association of Charter Schools, and is working as a doctoral candidate in literacy at the University of Maine.