Charters must be watched

As part of the suggestions for improvements to the education provided by Los Angeles Unified School District in its June 3 editorial “ Next step for schools,” The Los Angeles Times infers that Charter schools are the next-best thing to sliced bread for revamping our failing public school system. Charter schools can offer teachers the ability to create their own dynamic curriculum, free from the bureaucratic hurdles of the behemoth LAUSD. But as a former administrator and teacher at Ivy Academia Charter School in Woodland Hills, presently under a near year-long internal investigation by LAUSD, I’m concerned that districts are not yet equipped to deal with the opportunists who are attracted to this emerging field and who are not in it for the kids.

Charter schools are seen as cash-cows for those who learn how to work the system, and the districts that sponsor them must closely scrutinize not only the schools, but also the people who apply for charters. They must also closely monitor how they run their businesses. While most charters and their administrators are concerned with building a positive and ethical environment in which children can learn, there are some who see charter schools only as a business. There is nothing overtly wrong with that unless their business model is more Enron than Harvard. And when that happens, safeguards must be in place, and LAUSD, as well as the Los Angeles City Council and other governing agencies, cannot let these principle-challenged Charter school operators hide behind smiling children and seemingly grand test scores.

Administrators might tout heady test scores, but little or no consideration is given to the fact that there are those charter schools who actively seek out high-performing students who may have already been scoring high at their previous school. Comparing each child’s score against their own past performance is a more realistic and responsible way of determining if a particular Charter school’s curriculum is as good as its founders claim.

Speaking from my own experience, there are charter school operators who do not have educational backgrounds sufficient to supervise a complex teaching environment.

I’ve personally witnessed attendance record tampering (which can dictate overpayment to the school from the taxpayers).

Conflicts of interest must be carefully monitored. I’ve seen school founders who are not only employees of a school, but who also sit on the school’s board of directors/governing board, holding controlling positions where they set their own salaries and set financial, banking and administrative policies beneficial to their own personal financial interest.

So while I appreciate that Charter schools can be part of the answer at LAUSD, we must do everything we can to keep unscrupulous people from coming in and personally benefiting at taxpayer expense. And if they do get into the system, we need to hold them accountable for their actions, not make exceptions or change the rules to allow for out and out disregard for regulations and policy. Because, in the end, the only people who get hurt are the students, staff and families whose only crime was to try to find something better for their kids.

Chyre Kan is a former teacher and administrator at Ivy Academia Charter School, and prior to that was a teacher in the L.A. Unified School District.

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