It is fascinating that the Mississippi Charter School Authorizer Board seems to have trouble with authorizing. The likely reason for that is not too much of a surprise.
Republicans in the Legislature set up the charter school board a few years ago with the clear intention of encouraging successful operators of charter schools in other states to reach children in some of the poorest counties in the poorest state in the country. That has not happened.
So far, only three charter schools, all of them in Jackson, have opened. Another has been approved to open in Jackson a year from now.
This week, the charter school board rejected an application to open three elementary schools in Jackson. Outside evaluators recommended that the board reject the proposal because the company’s existing schools in Ohio and Indiana haven’t shown clear evidence of high academic achievement.
The 4-2 vote to reject the application means there will be no new charter schools approved this year. Given majority lawmakers’ eagerness to experiment, you have to wonder why the board is being so picky.
In reporting the vote against the company’s three schools, The Associated Press said the board’s debate highlighted tensions between efforts to increase the number of charter schools while giving academic performance the best chance to improve.
Some members of the board are frustrated that more charter schools aren’t being approved. They are correct when they worry that if Mississippi keeps rejecting applications, serious proposals will not develop.
Other board members also are correct when they say Mississippi, with its unique educational challenges, needs to make sure that charter school operators coming to the state have a demonstrated record of success, or at least a good chance of improving achievement.
A big impediment among out-of-state applicants appears to be performance. The results are good at some charter schools but not so good at others.
Is this really a shock? Charter schools are dealing with many students who, for whatever reasons, are way behind academically. It is unrealistic to expect any such school, even one that has more freedom than a public school, to magically get a majority of its students to score at noticeably higher levels in just one or two years.
The slow pace of charter school openings in the state is providing an opportunity for traditional public schools. It’s time for more of them to figure out how to experiment on a budget.
State law gives charter schools the most freedom to open in areas served by poorly rated public schools. Those are the superintendents and school board members who have to be most willing to do things differently.
Sooner or later, the charter school movement will speed up. Public schools that fear this should take advantage of the current delay.
