Charters Get a Plea for Help

In an unusual call for outside assistance, Los Angeles schools chief Roy Romer proposed Tuesday that charter school operators open campuses to serve students from some of the most overcrowded and worst-performing high schools in the city.

The Los Angeles Unified School District has come under mounting pressure to reverse years of low test scores and graduation rates at its high schools, many of which struggle to serve thousands of students and languish at the bottom of state rankings.

Romer’s proposal comes less than three weeks before the Nov. 8 special election in which voters will decide whether to approve a $3.9-billion school-construction bond that charter advocates angrily dismissed as not providing enough support for their campuses. Further, new school district enrollment figures released last week showed a marked increase in students attending charter schools within Los Angeles Unified’s boundaries.

Charter schools are independently run but publicly funded campuses that are intended to boost student achievement while offering smaller, more innovative programs.

Romer’s request for assistance from charter operators marks the first time in the superintendent’s five-year tenure that he has actively sought to bring charters into the district. Though the school board typically approves charter applications and Romer has expressed interest in collaborating with charter schools, he has been wary not to cede too much control over district campuses to them.

A proposal by Steve Barr, who runs several charter schools, to take over Jefferson High, one of the schools included in the proposal and the scene of several violent melees last spring, was met with disdain by Romer, who said he saw it as a hostile move.

Barr called Romer’s plan “intriguing,” but said it would not alter his push to take control of Jefferson.

Still, Romer’s proposal, which he offered to his staff earlier this week and then to board members Tuesday, was pitched as a way to relieve severe overcrowding in the selected schools. They are: Fremont, Roosevelt, Manual Arts, Jefferson, Los Angeles, Bell and Huntington Park high schools.

Romer said he chose the seven schools based on their low Academic Performance Indexes -- a score issued to all California public schools based on standardized test scores.

Romer proposed that charter operators submit bids next month to open high schools near the seven underperforming campuses. Romer and executive administrator Liliam Castillo said much of the charter plan hinges on whether the charter operators would be able to acquire adequate facilities in the neighborhoods and whether enough parents at the district schools would support the idea.

As the district pushes ahead with its long-term school construction project aimed at ending overcrowding, Romer said he hoped the charters would open next fall and enroll enough students to allow the campuses to switch from multitrack, year-round calendars to traditional two-semester schedules.

“We’re trying to accelerate the pace of change. We need relief more quickly than we can build,” Romer said. “Charters can be helpful in that.”

A.J. Duffy, president of United Teachers Los Angeles and a critic of charters, angrily dismissed Romer’s rationale for the plan.

“I’m opposed to it. I think it’s premature. I have no idea why he would call for this when the district is building 160 new schools,” Duffy said. “He’s being pushed by newspapers and politicians. Now is the time to continue with what the district is doing in terms of the building project.”

Caprice Young, president of the California Charter Schools Assn. and a former Los Angeles school board member, expressed cautious optimism about the plan, but questioned whether it goes far enough.

“It’s a great idea and we welcome the partnership,” she said. “But it will take much more than just one charter to help these areas.”

Young said the district has already approved a handful of charter schools to open in some of the proposed neighborhoods.

Board members Mike Lansing and David Tokofsky echoed Young. Though they support the invitation to charters, both said they were concerned that the superintendent has been slow to develop a broader strategy aimed at dividing the district’s crowded high schools into smaller, semi-autonomous groups, often called small learning communities.

“We need to focus on the bigger picture,” Lansing said. “It’s got to be a comprehensive plan if we’re going to make this work.”

Romer said he hoped that with fewer students and a return to the traditional calendar, the seven schools would be able to more quickly convert into the small learning clusters.