Barriers to Success

The hue and cry from the federal, state and local levels is for growing and replication of ‘high-quality’ charter schools.  Often this debate gets obfuscated by who is defining ‘high quality’ (standardized test results) and yet further muddied when people want to attribute causation to how charters are able to achieve ‘high quality’ (i.e. ‘creaming’, etc.)

In a recent press release noting the over 158,000 students on waiting lists for charter schools in California, CCSA president and CEO Jed Wallace shared, “We want to ensure every student in the state of California gets the education he or she deserves”.

If we want to create the adequate, safe space for these 158,000 students - and the other estimated 547,800 we are currently serving – by supporting the replication and expansion of high-quality charter schools, then this is only rhetoric if we are not answering the prime challenge to sustainability for these schools; adequate, long term, sustainable and reasonably priced facilities.

A comprehensive commitment is needed on the federal, state, and local level.  “While a stellar building provides no guarantee that a school will be a success, having adequate facilities that at least meet the needs of an academic program without robbing the budget can go a long way toward creating an environment conducive to learning.” (National Association of Charter Authorizers)

Currently lease incentive funds exist in California for schools serving the most disadvantaged through at least two separate programs and these do help these schools offset facilities cost. The funds in these programs aren’t for all charter schools and they don’t cover the significant costs in total for those who are eligible.  Additionally, prop 39 is a vehicle for facilities and offers by districts or counties sometimes mean the charter is offered an adequate facility; but there is no universal quality, no universal cost structure and the agreements are most often year to year which doesn’t support long term planning and sustainability – both stalwarts of high quality charter schools.

If we are all truly committed to creating high-quality charter schools, we must recognize facilities as a challenge or barrier to this commitment and we must seek real answers.