A Welcome Experiment

Community Charter Middle School, approved by the Los Angeles Board of Education last week and opening in July, is a welcome addition to the larger charter school experiment.

The Lake View Terrace school will become the Valley’s first charter middle school. It was formed precisely for this age group. Founder Jackie Elliot, a former teacher, administrator and health educator, calls middle school “the last chance” to reach still malleable preteens before they become immune to warnings about such dangers as gangs and drugs.

Will a charter middle school reach these kids any better than a regular middle school? It’s certainly worth a try, which is what charter schools are all about. Laboratories for change, the schools are publicly funded but control finances and curriculum and operate outside most state and local regulations. In return, charter schools promise that they will improve student academic achievement.

How they accomplish that--if they do--is the laboratory part. Like tugboats directing a cumbersome ship, the smaller, relatively independent schools can nudge the Los Angeles Unified School District in new directions.

Charter schools have their critics, of course. Some fear that the schools are an elitist attempt to, in effect, privatize public education by using public money to skim off the best students, leaving the hard-to-teach students to the regular public schools. And because most charter schools, including Community, demand vigorous participation by parents, there is fear--not unjustified--that children whose parents either don’t understand the system or don’t care will be left out.

But it’s hard to make the elitist argument in the beleaguered northeast Valley, which can’t be accused of having more than its share of services. And asking parents to volunteer in the schools holds out the promise of increasing the number of parents who participate in their children’s education rather than merely excluding those who don’t.

Considering the state of Los Angeles schools, such a promise is well worth a try.