Charter Schools Idea Needs More Study : Orange Trustees Should Get Results Before Expanding

Charter schools are an attempt to free schools from red tape, letting them operate without many state and district rules. Done for the right reasons, with dedicated teachers, enthusiastic parents and hard-working administrators, they hold promise. But they are still experimental.

The only charter school in Orange County thus far is Santiago Middle School in the Orange Unified School District. It will begin operations in its new format this fall after a year of preparations.

But before Santiago holds its first class as a charter school, the district’s board members are considering another charter school, with several campuses. This appears to be an attempt not to help students but to satisfy the personal agendas of several board members. That would be a mistake.

One Orange trustee said he hopes the charter would allow the schools, suddenly freed from state Education Code requirements, to teach creationism and possibly initiate prayers in school. The place of religion in the public schools is an area that requires great sensitivity. For example, there are problems in ensuring that school prayer is voluntary and non-coercive, as it must be. These may be charter schools, but they are still public schools, financed by all taxpayers of various religious beliefs. They are not private schools.

The board president, Maureen Aschoff, said she believes charter schools would reflect Republican positions on educational reform, with less government. But it is difficult to see how injecting partisan politics, Democrat or Republican, into the schools will help raise reading and math scores.

The district’s teachers are opposed to the multi-campus proposal. These are not knee-jerk reactionaries, as teachers are too often portrayed. The teachers at Santiago supported the charter school experiment on their campus.

The 1993 law allowing 100 charter schools in California, and a maximum of 10 in any one school district, wisely specified that half the teachers at participating sites or 10% in a district must approve the change. Orange for years has had tensions between board members and teachers. Teachers union leaders understandably fear that this latest proposal might be an attempt to get back at the teachers. Similarly, a charter could allow privatizing some services now required to be performed by the district. While there is nothing wrong with privatizing many functions, critics are concerned that rancorous labor-management relations could be a weapon against even efficient performers.

The Orange Unified School District has run up a depressing litany of problems in recent years. A maintenance supervisor was indicted on charges of misappropriating public funds, leading the Orange County Grand Jury to criticize four members who were then on the board for lack of oversight. Teachers struck in 1988; four years later there was an attempted recall of board members. A sexual harassment suit was filed against three top administrators, who filed a countersuit. A 10-day strike last year virtually halted bus and child-care services. And this month it was disclosed that the district has begun investigating allegations of bid-rigging and improper bookkeeping in its transportation and maintenance department.

The district trustees and administrators need to work on talking with teachers and parents, getting everyone’s suggestions and keeping an eye on test scores, before embarking on too ambitious an experiment. It would be better to see how the charter experiment at Santiago works before extending it from kindergarten through high school.