CHARTERS FOR SAME OLD STUFF

A federal program that was conceived as a way of providing funding to education experiments that would break the mold of business as usual in public education is, instead, being used to fund projects in Missouri schools that have already been tried with varying degrees of success and failure.

Instead of providing alternatives to public education, as is the case in some of the 19 other states involved in the national experiment, the charter school program is giving three Missouri schools district -- in Joplin, Belton and Columbia -- more funding to do what other districts are finding ways to pay for on their own.

While many public schools offer quality instruction with innovative teachers and inspired students, that isn't always the case. In general, public education nationwide is perceived as failing to excel, in large part because of trends and fads that have turned too many schools into laboratories for philosophical experiments at the expense of sound instruction in the basics.

The charter school programs were started to create models of instruction that produced results: higher test scores, better preparation for further education, more comprehension of general learning and practical programs that would demonstrate the potential for alternatives to run-of-the-mill public education.

But in Belton, the charter-school funding is being used to stem the tide of dropouts. A lot of schools already have programs to do this, and many of them seem to be working. In Joplin, the charter-school funding is being used for an experimental academy for a limited number of students. Programs for high achievers already abound throughout public education. In Columbia, the charter-school emphasis is on computers and partnerships with community agencies, both of which are pretty much routine already for many schools.

So where is the impetus for alternatives to public education? As implemented in Missouri -- all part of Senate Bill 380, otherwise known as the Outstanding Schools Act -- charter-school programs are restricted to three projects, all within existing public schools.

Regrettably, that sounds a lot like spending money on more of the same.