Planners of Chain of Private Schools Gauge Parent Interest

Offering a vision of smaller classes, a comprehensive curriculum and safe campuses, executives of a Tennessee company intent on building for-profit private schools across the nation met with dozens of parents Tuesday night to gauge their interest in locating one of the campuses in the San Fernando Valley.

At two invitation-only “focus group” meetings at the Sheraton Universal Hotel in Universal City, leaders of Whittle Communications’ Edison Project told about 70 parents that their endeavor would furnish quality private education for about $7,000 to $8,000 a year.

Executives of the Knoxville-based company painted a portrait of schools composed of about 1,300 students with a curriculum emphasizing hands-on learning, providing a teacher for every 15 students, that would make ample use of computers and other modern technology.

“We’re almost certain that one of the schools in our first wave of campuses . . . will be in Los Angeles,” and most likely in the Valley, said Benno C. Schmidt Jr., who stepped down as president of Yale University to head the Edison Project.

“This is one of the large communities in this country that is the most ready for the introduction of new alternatives.”

Project planners picked the Valley as one of five sites nationwide--and the only one in California--to test interest in their effort to build as many as 100 for-profit schools across the country.

The focus group sessions in Universal City signal the company’s interest in locating a campus in the Valley, long a hotbed of dissatisfaction with the Los Angeles public school system.

However, Edison Project executives last month denied that there was a link between their interest in the Valley and the burgeoning movement--spearheaded by Valley parents and community groups--to split up the mammoth Los Angeles Unified School District. Executives said they picked the Valley because it is “a promising place” where “people have historically shown an interest in quality education.”

Parents who attended the two-hour closed-door presentations said they were encouraged by the company’s efforts and frustrated with Los Angeles public schools.

Rhoda Pinchak, a Sherman Oaks mother of three, described herself as a supporter of public schools, but said the nation’s second-largest school district is failing in its task.

“My husband and I are products of public schools. We’re very pro-public schools, but they don’t seem to be working here,” Pinchak said. “There are so many problems--I’ve heard there are 40 to 45 kids in a class, and I don’t want that.”

Pinchak said she and her husband have considered private schooling for their children previously, but “with three kids, it’s a lot of money, unless you win the lottery.”

Other parents, however, expressed concern that Edison Project schools might not provide ethnically diverse settings for their children. Nearly all the parents who attended the sessions Tuesday night were Anglo.

“I really look for diversity in a school,” said Robert H. Berger, an Anglo father whose wife is Asian-American.

“I have a diverse household, so I’m concerned that my children’s school also be diverse.”

The proposed money-making schools were unveiled amid some controversy two years ago as an alternative to public schooling that would provide affordable private education as well as turn a profit for investors. Supporters hailed them as a sorely needed innovation that would breathe new life into primary and secondary education, but critics contend they would funnel students and resources away from the nation’s beleaguered public schools.

Company executives said California would be home to several Edison Project schools, the first of which are expected to open in 1996. Entrepreneur Christopher Whittle has pledged that tuition would stay within reach of most middle-class families and would probably equal the per-pupil amount spent annually by public schools, or about $5,000 in California.

Additional Valley focus group sessions will be held Thursday at the Sheraton Universal Hotel with families selected by the company, working through civic and community groups and educational organizations.