newjerseynewsroom.com

BY SHARON McCLOSKEY and JOE TYRRELL

NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM

SPECIAL REPORT: FIRST OF THREE PARTS

As another school year opens, policymakers from Washington to Trenton to Newark are betting heavily that charter schools can flourish where other public schools have not.

Since the passage of charter school legislation in Minnesota in 1991, the number of charter schools across the nation has grown to almost 5,000. In New Jersey, where the first opened in 1997, there are 73 functioning schools.

Proponents of charter schools – which are publicly funded but privately run – have garnered support from highly placed politicians, well-heeled philanthropists, dedicated community groups and idealistic educational entrepreneurs.

So is Gov. Chris Christie. "There are going to be more charter schools a year from now than there are today," he promised charter school educators in March.

And even as the state budget crunch led the governor to cut aid to other public schools, he exempted charter schools, saying they "have been consistently underfunded."

Christie is correct that many charter schools have been shortchanged, trying to do more with less than they should receive under state law.

But private interests have rushed in to fill the gap, investing millions of dollars in charter schools and infusing their investments with distinct educational philosophies.

Public money nonetheless remains the primary source of funding for charter schools.

The intercession of these private interests, coupled with growing political infatuation for the movement, may be fostering an environment that is long on promise and possibility but short on public involvement and oversight.

The federal government has spent roughly $2 billion to finance new charter schools, but less than $2 million to hold them to high standards, according to Greg Richmond, president of the national Association of Charter School Authorizers.

Testifying in February before the House Education and Labor Committee, Richmond compared that to building interstate highways, but spending "nothing to put up guardrails."

Who are the people running the charter schools? How did they get there? Who is funding them? And who is watching over them?

New Jersey's public education system is in turmoil. The Governor continues to battle with teachers and their union as he tries to recover from the administration's bungling of its "Race to the Top" application and his own firing of Education Commissioner Bret Schundler.

As a look at one well-established school in Newark reveals, despite hopeful possibilities, an infusion of private money and dedicated personnel, a charter school can operate in a highly politicized atmosphere, in violation of laws and with far less accountability than other public schools.

At Lady Liberty Academy Charter School in Newark, the school board – often operating without the legally required number of members – kept sketchy records, and even no records, of some meetings and actions. Even when records were kept, they were unreliable.

School officials, including some with connections to the Booker Administration, appeared unfamiliar with the basic requirements of New Jersey public contracts and open meetings laws. Violations have run the gamut from awarding contracts without proper votes to misapplying federal funds to failing to conduct fire drills.

In the past two years, Lady Liberty has floundered, with student test scores dropping as board members came and went. A highly paid new administrative team, brought in from New York with the personal involvement of Mayor Cory Booker, spent much of the past year in disputes with teachers and holdover board members.

Yet at the height of this turmoil, the state Department of Education renewed Lady Liberty's charter, without conditions.

High Hopes

When New Jersey legislators debated adopting a charter school program, they struggled with the concept of publicly funded schools being privately run. The themes of community involvement and public accountability permeated their discussions.