CHANGES MAY BOOST CHARTER-SCHOOL IDEA

Charter schools have been in the news for a couple of years now, but so far there don't appear to be any particular success stories. On the federal level, charter schools have received little more than lip service. And states that have tried to implement the concept haven't had overwhelming success.

Why?

First, understand the concept. Charter schools were to provide for alternatives to public education in situations where public schools were unable to meet challenging needs. In some cases, charter schools were seen as a way to provide the advantages of a private school in a public setting. The very name implies that these special schools would receive a charter -- usually from a state -- to embark on bold educational voyages, unencumbered by the traditional public-school bureaucracy and administrative oversight.

But what has happened? Mainly, charter schools were authorized, but they were kept under the thumbs of local school boards and state education departments. As a result, the few efforts that exist are pretty much public schools with a fancy name.

In Missouri, there are three charter schools, all run by local school districts to address needs such as dropouts, much like the Alternative School here in Cape Girardeau. In larger part, the Show Me charter schools are little more than conduits for grants.

In Illinois, special charter-school legislation was expected to bring an overwhelming response to a 45-school pilot program. But only eight charter schools have been established, mostly in Chicago, and all operate as extensions of existing school districts. Now an effort is planned this fall in the Illinois Legislature to rewrite the charter-school legislation, taking them out from under school districts and making them what they were intended to be from the start: independent alternatives to public education that meet needs identified by parents and students.

This move toward independent charter schools is overdue. Don't take that as an indictment of public education in Cape Girardeau or Southeast Missouri. By and large, public schools here provide a sound education for most students.

But that isn't the case everywhere, particularly urban areas. Missouri's two largest cities have been beset by misguided -- and expensive -- court-ordered desegregation plans for so long that their schools have all but lost any sense of direction.

And look at the alternatives even in our own back yard: Private schools, usually with strong religious overtones, are booming. For whatever reasons, parents are willing to pay taxes for public schools and private tuition for church-affiliated schools in order to meet the needs they perceive.

Given the opportunity and a sound framework for independent operation, charter schools could provide a good return for tax dollars in many areas. But it will take a strong legislature to adopt the laws that will let such innovative efforts achieve their goals.