LOCAL SCHOOL ADMINISTRATORS DIVIDED OVER CHARTER ISSUE

Area school administrators have plenty to say about a Missouri law that permits the establishment of charter schools in St. Louis and Kansas City."I think it's ridiculous," said Dr. Arnold Bell, superintendent of Sikeston School District."I think it could only make the area better," said David Anthony Migliorino, principal of Notre Dame Regional High School.

Bell, Migliorino and many other school administrators are closely watching the development of charter schools in Missouri. The schools, which are public schools operated by private firms, are supported by tax dollars but are not required to follow the same guidelines and mandates required of public schools.

Missouri lawmakers approved charter schools in 1998. There are 15 charter schools operating in the Kansas City area but none in St. Louis. The St. Louis Board of Education has filed a lawsuit challenging the law. A decision is expected in December.

Bell said he is opposed to charter schools because of the freedoms they are granted. School districts need to have guidelines and be held accountable for meeting those guidelines, he said. "How can we assume they're going to be better?" Bell said. "For them there's no Missouri State Improvement Program, no state monitoring whatsoever. We in public schools have to meet regulation after regulation and check after check."Instead of establishing charter schools, Bell said a better remedy to the problems urban school districts face would be to reduce their size or change the guideline so that public schools in general have more freedoms.

Jackson schools Superintendent Dr. Ron Anderson said some type of change is necessary to improve student achievement in urban schools. However, he also questioned the wisdom of holding charter schools to lower standards than public schools are required to meet. "I think in an urban setting trying some different kinds of approaches are maybe necessary, but to play the game from different rules isn't sometimes seen as fair," Anderson said. "If some of those things in bureaucracy were suspended for those districts, it might have similar results."Public-school administrators also question the use of public funds to support charter schools. Missouri law requires per-pupil funding to "follow the student," which means charters get funding that ordinarily would be designated for the public districts."It costs a great deal to educate a child, so I do see that as a concern," said Migliorino. "But I think parents have a right to choose the education for their children. The money isn't going to the school. It's going to the individual."Migliorino, like other area school officials, said he wouldn't view a charter school as a threat if the law were expanded to other regions of the state. Unlike the others, Migliorino said a charter school would be "another benefit for the community" because it would increase parents' ability to choose how their child was educated." I don't see it hurting enrollment because people pick their schools because of the mission," he said. "Some people like a variety and a mix, other people want science, science, science. Some parents will choose Central, some will choose Notre Dame, some will choose Eagle Ridge, and they have that right."Dr. Dan Steska, Cape Girardeau schools superintendent, said he didn't question a parent's right to choose how their child is educated. However, public-school administrators would be concerned about the loss of enrollment to a charter school, especially if their best achievers left the district, he said.

While lower-achieving students also might be attracted to charter schools, public schools would retain more of these students because "public schools will always have more special-learning programs due to federal funding," Steska said."I think another concern would be which students would be at least initially drawn to the charter schools," he said. "I think there is some concern that some of the more able students may at least experiment with the charter-school concept."Bell said he doesn't see any good in the establishment of charter schools in Missouri or elsewhere. He said he is unaware of any good examples of operating charter schools, and is fundamentally against them because they operate without any accountability."I'm a public-school person, and I support public schools," Bell said. "Anything that's going to be detrimental to public schools, I'm going to be against until they're proven to be as good as anything we're doing, and they're held to the same standards."