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The governor signed this bill into law June 3. An amendment supported
by WEAC was successfully added. It requires school boards to hold a
public hearing and discuss the fiscal impact of approving a charter
school before a contract is granted. WEAC and WFT, however, remain opposed
to the law.
The current charter school law provides districts with a unique opportunity to establish innovative programs in Wisconsin’s public schools. The law works because of a strong commitment to maintaining accountability to the parents, educators, school boards, politicians, and the broad based community that create them.
Since passage of the charter school law, a total of seventeen charter schools have been created in Wisconsin. In addition, federal establishment grants have been made available to provide an $800,000 infusion of funding administered by the DPI to generate even greater levels of experimentation. This experimentation should not, however, lead to a deterioration of the responsibility and accountability that is the foundation of the current system.
1997 Assembly Bill 631 greatly expands the charter school law in Wisconsin. The bill makes the following changes:
The provisions of Assembly Bill 631 may appear to foster opportunities in public education, but in reality could lead to dire unintended consequences. This legislation must be scrutinized carefully to prevent a system where entities that sponsor a charter school are given so much authority that they go beyond the true intent of serving the public interest.
Many of the existing charters schools are innovative and use a variety of imaginative strategies to reach students who often cannot succeed in a traditional setting. For example, the Ladysmith Evening Alternative School is a school which begins each day in the late afternoon/early evening to meet the needs of students who have serious learning and personal challenges, including those who are under the jurisdiction of the court system, who are teenage parents, or who might not even be in school.
The McKinley Charter School in Eau Claire is an alternative school which seeks to meet the needs of the most “behaviorally challenging” students in Eau Claire. The Deerfield Alternative School, Affiliated Alternatives in Madison (a group of “accelerated” alternative schools), Middleton Alternative High School and the Beaver Dam Charter School are all alternative schools which are both creative and successful.
Development of an innovative charter school is a high risk endeavor. Real innovation is best done in an environment that provides support and security for those taking the risks. Educators in charter schools have expressed the opinion that remaining employees of the school district has allowed, and even encouraged them, to act boldly in creating innovative instructional approaches to learning.
WEAC and the WFT support the current charter school law as it applies to school districts outside the city of Milwaukee. We urge opposition to passage of the provisions of 1997 AB 631 during the extraordinary session of the Legislature.
Contact John Stocks in the WEAC Government Relations Division at 800- 362-8034 or by e-mail at stocksj@weac.org with any reactions, comments or questions.
Posted April 27, 1998