Charter Schools Making History but Not in O.C. : Education: It’s a rare district that will approve conversion and allow a school to secede from its authority.

Not one public school in Orange County has accepted the state Legislature’s invitation to break free of the educational bureaucracy. Our schools stand on the verge of change, and go no further.

Last year, the Legislature authorized local teachers to create their own “charter” public schools, schools almost totally free of excessive regulation.

Today, the first charter schools in California are making public school history, breaking free of a 6,000-page Education Code to flee the bureaucratic policies that have stifled learning.

El Dorado County’s charter school is using the “Nordstrom’s approach” to replace layers of administrative personnel with “entrepreneur’s,” whose salaries range from $7 to $27 an hour, depending on their ability to educate children, (not on seniority or number of degrees.)

In Sonoma County, Bennett Valley Union Elementary School teachers have created a charter version of a home school. The state is paying 220 Bennett Valley parents to educate their children, giving them the funds for textbooks, software and group activities.

Elsewhere, charter students’ academic schooling will be augmented by participation in a three-year apprenticeship program with local companies. Students will graduate with enough experience to grab onto the first rung of a real career, whether it be in a trade or a profession.

Though charter schools have yet to come to Orange County, it isn’t from lack of interest.

In Huntington Beach, for example, a proposal is now circulating among high school principals which would turn all of the high schools in the district into charter schools. If approved, the charters could result in a return to the ‘50s: school uniforms, strict rules on and off campus, and higher standards of learning.

Although in major ways, charter schools must adhere to some of the same rules as other public schools, including racial balance, there are major differences. First and foremost, charter schools are held accountable for their students’ performance. If the schools fail to meet specific goals, their charters are revoked.

But getting a charter approved is a difficult task. While only 10% of the teachers are needed to petition for charter conversion, they are at the mercy of the school board for approval. School boards that go along with the charter concept are effectively allowing the petitioning school to secede from the district’s authority, taking their allotted funds with them. It’s a rare school board that will approve that.

To solve this problem, I co-authored a bill with Sen. Bill Leonard (R-Upland) that would have given parents the right to petition for charter schools. But it was killed in committee.

Thus you have a situation where charters, despite all the hype that accompanied the 1992 legislation, are non-starters. Where it was once believed that hundreds of schools would apply, there have only been nine to date. Few school boards want to relinquish the power of the purse, and most teachers’ unions fear change.

If we overcome their opposition, public education as we know it could change dramatically, becoming more accountable to the interests of parents.

Today, for example, a public school cannot afford to stay open at night and is not allowed to charge for afternoon or evening activities that could help keep children off the streets. But a charter school could be part of an after-school day care or community center all using the same school facilities.

In addition, today’s schools cannot hire qualified personnel, such as aerospace engineers, authors or CPAs, unless they have teaching certificates. But a charter school could hire on merit alone.

Finally, a public school finds it almost impossible to lower the student/teacher ratio by hiring fewer administrators and more teachers. But a charter school can do almost anything it wants with personnel.

As Eva Kinsman, principal of the Yucca Mesa Elementary charter school in San Bernardino County said, “I believe (charters) will enable us to build a school of staff, community members, parents and volunteers that provides the very best education we can. We no longer have to worry about whether something we want to do fits in with school board policy, just about whether it is best for our children.”

There must be countless parents who would jump at the chance to create a new kind of school. There must be thousands of teachers who are fed up with today’s bureaucracy. But only a few in Orange County are now exploring the possibility of petitioning their local school board. On the verge they stand and go no further.