Gov. Seeks More Charter Schools as the Key to Improving Education

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said Thursday that charter schools are key to improving education in California and announced plans to make it easier for failing campuses to convert to charters.

Speaking at the opening of Accelerated Charter School’s newly expanded 130,000-square-foot campus, Schwarzenegger called the school in one of the city’s poorest neighborhoods “a great model, not only for schools in Los Angeles and California, but for the rest of the nation.”

California Secretary of Education Richard Riordan, Los Angeles Mayor James K. Hahn and Los Angeles Unified School District Supt. Roy Romer also attended the event, which celebrated the kindergarten- through-eighth-grade South Los Angeles campus that also will serve high school students over the next two years.

Charter schools are publicly funded campuses free from many state regulations. They offer innovative curricula under a more stringent state accountability system.

With more than 500 charter schools in California, Schwarzenegger said he plans to organize community coalitions to build additional charters “as fast as possible.” He said he wants to help parents whose children attend state-monitored schools petition the state Board of Education for charter schools.

“Charter schools are pathfinders in education using new teaching methods, setting more guidelines and giving more choices to parents in our public schools,” Schwarzenegger said.

As he called for more charters, some education leaders criticized the governor’s decision to withhold $2 billion owed to schools under Proposition 98, money which also is intended to benefit charter campuses. “You can’t praise charter schools and cut Prop. 98 at the same time because you will kill the charter schools who rely on Prop. 98,” said L.A. Unified school board member David Tokofsky.

Caprice Young, executive director of the nonprofit California Charter Schools Assn., said charter campuses are underfunded, but praised the governor’s support for the movement and noted that he vetoed legislation last year that would have eroded charters’ flexibility.

The modern Accelerated School campus, on the corner of Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and Main Street, includes 36 classrooms that will serve 1,050 students. It offers a rooftop basketball court and amphitheater, a library and community health center. Students learn in air-conditioned classrooms and have access to flat-screen computers. School officials plan a professional development center to train teachers and an early childhood development center.

Funding for the $50-million campus came from voter-approved school construction bonds, state grants, private donations and a $10-million grant from the Annenberg Foundation -- the largest ever made to an L.A. Unified school.

The school sets high expectations for all of its students. Teachers are evaluated based on student performance. Parents and school staff members are deeply involved in curriculum implementation, campus governance and school decisions.