Letter: Administrator's Presentation on Charter Schools Inaccurate

To the Editor:

Public education is too important to allow blatantly inaccurate statements to stand without correction. Such is the case with the presentation that Canonsburg Middle School Principal Dr. Greg Taranto made to the Canon-McMillan School Board regarding charter schools and legislation that was before the state Legislature last month. Here are a few of the most egregious misstatements of fact:

• Senate Bill 1115 is not pending legislation as Dr. Taranto stated. It was passed by the Senate last month but not acted upon by the House so it is dead.
• His misinterpretations of what was in SB 1115 are numerous. First, it did not propose that the state authorize all charter schools. Currently the state authorizes cyber schools and school districts authorize brick-and-mortar charter schools. That would not have changed. What would have changed is that a new state authorizer would have been created as an option.

Second, exemption from the Right-to-Know language was not in the final legislation and, even if it was, it would have applied not only to charter schools, but to every municipality and every other public school in the state, including the Canon-McMillan School District.

Third, extending charter terms does not mean that under-performing charters cannot be closed down at any time during their charter. In fact, it is much easier to close an underperforming charter school than it is to close an underperforming traditional public school. That would not have changed.

• Dr. Taranto stated that charter schools started in 1988. In fact, the first charter law in the nation was passed in Minnesota in 1992. Pennsylvania’s charter law was enacted in 1997.
• His statements on AYP performance and the results of the Stanford CREDO study are not accurate.
• He states that public schools are losing money to charter schools, but charter schools are public schools, just a different model, and the good charter schools are effectively educating children for, on average in Pennsylvania, 30 percent less than the taxpayer is paying to the district.

The debate on charter schools is among educators and legislators, but parents are well ahead of both in determining what is best for their children. Charter schools are not the correct option for every child, but more than 105,000 parents in this state have already moved their children to charter schools and another 44,000 are on waiting lists to get in to a charter school.

Charter school enrollment represents six percent of the students in public schools in Pennsylvania and is growing at almost 10 percent per year. Educators who are truly interested in what is best for the children should be asking why. What shortcomings do these parents see in their current public school that motivates them to seek a different option for their children? Charter schools provide choice that is antithetical to the geographic monopoly that traditional districts have worked with for more than a hundred years. But the best school districts understand this and are changing to improve education for all children.

Robert Fayfich

Executive Director

Pennsylvania Coalition of Public Charter Schools