CHARTER SCHOOLS -- THIRD OF FOUR PARTS; CHARTER SCHOOLS FIND SUCCESS ELSEWHERE

School may still be out in Missouri on the future of charter schools, but they are firmly planted in other states.

Most of the nation's 1,800 charter schools have been open for two years or less. Most charters are granted for three-to-five years, after which they can be renewed.

Jon Schroeder says it is too early to tell if charter schools have made the grade. Schroeder directs Charter Friends National Network in St. Paul, Minn., an organization of charter-school proponents.

He said the U.S. Department of Education is in its fourth year of a national study of charter schools but has yet to release its findings. At this point, the evidence is largely anecdotal, he said.

Charter schools are intended to create different and better learning environments and provide new ways to teach students. They also are designed to foster improvements in public-school districts, Schroeder said.

Proponents say a major advantage of charter schools is they aren't burdened by bloated bureaucracies and central offices that stifle creative education.

The first charter school opened in Minnesota in 1992 as an alternative school for high-school dropouts. "It has had an amazing track record in turning around students' lives," Schroeder said. Today, Minnesota has about 60 charter schools.

Charter schools can prompt school districts to improve their services too, he said.

In Lansing, Mich., the school district refused to offer all-day kindergarten despite years of requests from parents. Then charter schools opened. The new schools offered all-day kindergarten, and the school district soon began offering all-day kindergarten to meet the competition.

After charter schools opened in Boston, the school district responded by establishing some pilot schools that operate more freely than more traditional public schools.

Charter schools are run by non-profit groups except in Arizona. That state allows businesses and people to operate charter schools for profit and non-profit groups. Arizona has about 350 charter schools, the most in the nation.

Proponents of charter schools seek to dispel what they see as the myths of charter schools.

The first myth is that charter schools take the cream of the crop, the best and brightest students. That isn't the case, Schroeder and others say. Charter schools aren't academies for white students escaping from desegregated schools."The evidence is just the opposite," Schroeder said. "A disproportionate number of students are low-income students and students of color." Charter schools also take special-education students.

The Boston Renaissance Charter School is one of the nation's largest charter schools, with 1,142 students in kindergarten through eighth grade. The school is housed in a 13-story building in the heart of Boston. Most of its students are black and come from poor families.

Unlike the Massachusetts' traditional public schools, charter schools like Boston Renaissance are non-union shops. "You get a certain nimbleness you might not find in schools that are tightly bound by union regulations," said Dudley Blodget, president of the school."Ultimately, I don't believe charter schools are the silver bullet to reform public education," he said. "I think they can be part of the solution."Charter schools aren't elite schools. Schroeder said, "They are being started in the main by people trying to address deficiencies and gaps in the district schools."Charter-school students often are academically poor students and those with behavioral problems, said Boston Renaissance Headmaster Roger Harris."Those kids that are successful and honor-roll students are happy. Their parents are not going to pull them out and put them into a new school that is not proven," he said.

In traditional districts, low-income parents have no choice as to where their children will attend school. Charter schools give them a choice they have never had before, Harris said.

Charter schools are public schools, and they can't discriminate. "Charter schools take whoever comes through their doors," Harris said.

Waiting lists are common. About 800 students are on the waiting list at Boston Renaissance.

Charter schools don't charge tuition. They do receive state funding based on enrollment.

Opponents worry that school districts will suffer from declining enrollments and loss of state aid. Proponents dismiss such fears, saying charter schools typically have small enrollments. Charter schools nationwide educate over 350,000 students."Urban districts have such bloated budgets that charter schools have made a minimal impact," said Laura Friedman, director of the Charter Schools Information Center in St. Louis. In the Kansas City School District, some 43 percent of its more-than-$5,000-per-pupil funding is consumed by administrative expenses, charter school proponents say."Across the country urban districts are so top heavy the pin prick of several charter schools does not make a big difference in their budgets," Friedman said.

Schroeder said public-school districts remain one of the few institutions that are guaranteed customers."That is one of the problems with the current system," he said. "It is a monopoly system. There is no reason for a school system to want to change and improve other than altruism, and that only goes so far."Charter schools have surfaced in rural as well as urban areas, and they haven't destroyed the local school districts, Schroeder said.

In Minnesota, one of the strongest charter schools is situated in a town of 1,000 people with about 120 students from a number of school districts and makes use of computer technology. The school provides "a lot of on-line learning and independent study," Schroeder said.

Some charter schools in Minnesota are alternative high schools with 50 to 60 students that focus on out-of-school learning in the community.

Plans are in the works for a charter school on a Minnesota dairy farm. The students would live, work and study at the farm.

As Schroeder and other charter-school supporters see it, competition is good for public education.

Friday: Charter school proponents sell their case to Southeast Missouri State University officials.