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The Charter School Promise
The Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction defines a charter school in the following manner:
“Charter schools are public, nonsectarian schools created through a businesslike contract or ‘charter’ between the operator and the sponsoring school board or other chartering authority. The Wisconsin charter school law gives charter schools freedom from most state rules and regulations in exchange for greater accountability for results. The charter defines the missions and methods of the charter school; the chartering authority holds the school accountable to its charter. The motto is ‘autonomy for accountability’” (Charter School Program, 1998, p. vii)
Proponents of charter schools believe that if teachers, parents, administrators, and others are set free from rules, regulations, and mandates, they will develop creative and innovative schools that will meet the needs of all students. Ultimately, it is argued, charter schools will result in higher levels of parent involvement and improved student achievement. It also is argued that the creative and successful programs developed by charter schools will help to improve the traditional public schools.
The first charter school, City Academy, began in the fall of 1992 in St. Paul, Minnesota. The school was created to give teachers and administrators the flexibility and autonomy to meet the needs of the most difficult to teach urban students.
During the 1998-99 school year there were 40 charter schools operating in Wisconsin, with many more planned for the future. At the beginning of 1999, there were 1,128 charter schools operating in the United States; Arizona has the most, with 271.
Charter School Requirements
Charter schools in Wisconsin are exempt from most state requirements; however, there are a few that must be met:
The Status of Charter School Employees
Nearly all teachers in Wisconsin’s public school districts are members of a collective bargaining unit and, as such, are accorded the rights and privileges of the master contract. Public school employees also are participants in the Wisconsin Retirement System (WRS).
Legislation passed in 1998 allows school districts statewide to contract with corporations, partnerships, associations, or individuals to operate a charter school. This same legislation permits a school board to determine whether or not a charter school is an instrumentality of the school district. If the school is an instrumentality, all employees working for the district participate in the Wisconsin Retirement System and may be members of a collective bargaining unit.
Although districts throughout the state have the power to create charter schools that are not instrumentalities of the district, to date none have been created.
State law stipulates that in Milwaukee, schools chartered by the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Milwaukee Area Technical College, and the City of Milwaukee are not instrumentalities of the school district. Nor are private schools in Milwaukee that convert to charter schools. This means, of course, that teachers in these schools are not employed by the district, do not belong to the Wisconsin Retirement System, and are not members of the Milwaukee Teachers’ Education Association.
Although charter school teachers have to be licensed by the Department of Public Instruction, the DPI has created a charter school teaching license to allow charter schools more flexibility in their staffing. This license allows licensed teachers to teach any subject or grade in the charter school. Charter schools also are allowed to employ other persons who are not trained as teachers by obtaining a DPI-issued charter school teaching permit. (In order to obtain this permit, the charter school must show that it was unable to hire a qualified, licensed teacher. The charter school permit is valid for one year and can be renewed).
Accountability of Charter Schools in Wisconsin
As noted, charter schools are exempt from most rules and regulations established for regular public schools. However, charter schools must participate in state testing programs, and they are accountable for meeting the requirements of the contract established with the authorizing institution. They also are forbidden from discriminating against students. Charters are granted for a period of five years and can be renewed every five years. The law allows the authorizing institution to revoke the charter for any number of reasons, including failure to comply with the contract.
Research on the Success of Charter Schools
Ultimately, charter schools will be judged on the extent to which they affect student learning and other measures of academic success. They also should be evaluated by the extent to which they affect traditional public schools. To date, we have few data that speak to the impact of charter schools on the programs or services offered in the traditional public schools.
One should be wary of those who say that charter schools will be sources of creativity and innovation. Many charter schools tend to serve very specialized groups of students. Consequently, they are unlikely to become appropriate “role models” for traditional public schools that have to meet the needs of all students. In addition, the extent to which charter schools, whether public or private, will share their ideas for “success” with their competitors (which include the public schools) is questionable. (Parenthetically, it should be asked whether or not for-profit schools, which tend to offer a standardized set of programs and services in their schools, can emerge as leaders in innovation and creativity).
There also is little information available on student learning in charter schools. However, test data reported by the Detroit Free Press (1999) showed that students in Michigan’s 138 charter schools did not do as well on state tests in 1999 as students in traditional public schools. This study reported that most charter schools were not innovative and that the majority are run by private management companies, not parents or teachers dissatisfied with their local public schools.
As a group, charter schools are given autonomy from many rules and regulations, yet they are expected to be accountable. However, in any discussion of accountability, there are a number of questions that arise, including the following (see Schaiberg, 1998):
Legislative Audit Bureau’s Evaluation of Wisconsin’s Charter School Program
In December, 1998, the Wisconsin’s Legislative Audit Bureau (LAB) issued a report in which it evaluated the current charter school program (Charter School Program, Madison, Wisconsin: Legislative Audit Bureau, December, 1998). This report provides some of the best data available about charter schools in Wisconsin; several findings and recommendations are listed below:
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Legislative History of Charter Schools in Wisconsin Except in the City of Milwaukee, only school districts in Wisconsin can sponsor a charter school. There also are no limits on the number that can be created. In addition, districts statewide can convert private, nonsectarian schools to charter schools and also have the discretion of deciding whether or not employees of charter schools are district employees. A more detailed breakdown of the legislative history follows. 1993: Legislation authorized ten school districts in Wisconsin (on a first-come, first-serve basis) to establish as many as two charter schools each, for a total of 20 charter schools statewide. Under this legislation, 13 charter schools were created; they were exempt from most state rules and regulations. In the original legislation, all charter schools were instrumentalities of school districts, and all employees of a charter school were employees of the school district. 1995: All districts were allowed to create charter schools without a limitation on the number per district. There were three other changes: (1) two or more school boards were allowed to establish a charter school; (2) the Milwaukee school board was allowed to convert private schools to charter schools; and (3) staff of charter schools in Milwaukee were prohibited from being employees of the school district. (This last provision was modified to allow the Milwaukee school board to determine whether or not employees of its charter schools would be employees of the district). 1997: Chartering authority in Milwaukee was given to the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, the Milwaukee Area Technical College, and the Common Council of the City of Milwaukee. 1998: Districts were allowed to contract with a Cooperative Educational Service Agency (CESA) to operate a charter school. In addition, school districts statewide were allowed to contract with corporations, partnerships, associations, or individuals to operate a charter school. Districts also were allowed to convert private, nonsectarian schools to charter schools. This legislation also permits a school board to decide whether or not a charter school is an instrumentality of the school district. If the school is an instrumentality, all employees work for the district, participate in the Wisconsin Retirement System, and may belong to a collective bargaining unit. In Milwaukee, schools created by the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, the Milwaukee Area Technical College, and the City of Milwaukee are not instrumentalities of the school district. Private schools that convert to charter schools also are not instrumentalities of the district. |
Conclusion
The Wisconsin Education Association Council supported the original charter school legislation because it believed that innovative and creative charter schools might provide new and successful ways to educate children. However, from the beginning, WEAC has had concerns that the charter school concept would be used as a means to evade general and reasonable standards for public schools. WEAC also opposed giving public agencies other than locally elected school boards the power to create charter schools because of concerns for accountability.
The 1998 audit of the Wisconsin charter school program by the Legislative Audit Bureau concluded that as a group charter schools have been neither creative nor innovative. Wisconsin appears to be moving in the direction of funding two systems of “public” education. One system is required to meet higher and higher standards, including more accountability — in which there is now consideration of more teacher testing, teacher evaluation based on student assessment results, and students denied diplomas if they are unable to pass a rigorous high school graduation test. The second system, one of charters (and Milwaukee voucher schools), is free from most rules and regulations, with weak or almost nonexistent levels of accountability. This is not a level playing field.
—WEAC Division for Instruction and Professional Development
Sources
Charter School Program. Madison, Wisconsin: Wisconsin Legislative Audit Bureau, December, 1998. Available at: www.legis.state.wi.us/lab/windex.htm.
Kane, Pearl Rock. “Charter Schools: Paying Attention to Ancillary Findings.” Education Week (October 14, 1998). Available at: www.edweek.org/
Schnaiberg, Lynn. “Charter Schools Struggle With Accountability,” Education Week (June 10, 1998). Available at: www.edweek.org/
Wisconsin Charter Schools. Madison, Wisconsin: Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction, 1998.
Hornbeck, Mark. “Charter Schools Fall Short of Expectations.” Detroit Free Press (June 6, 1999)
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