Charter districts: when an entire district goes charter, do benefits follow? A study casts doubts

School Administrator, June, 2002 by Anne Turnbaugh Lockwood

In Florida, charter district status had a whole other meaning. Superintendents of charter districts didn't have to apply for individual waivers from state rules--a tedious gamble under the best of circumstances. And while district administrators firmly believed that charter status brought them significant freedom from state rules and regulations, they still had to negotiate with unions and deal with staffing issues in a more conventional sense.

But they were proud of other gains. In the Hillsborough County, Fla., School District, for example, staff constructed a five-year plan with incremental steps to increase student achievement, This type of plan could have been realized without charter status, but district administrators maintain that its development and implementation would have been far slower.

Donnie Evans, Hillsborough County's assistant superintendent for instruction, says the district was searching for ways "to think outside the box." The district also sought the freedom that individual charter schools enjoy, as well as their flexibility to enact their own instructional programs.

State Regulation

So far, so good. What possibly could be problematic with something so promising?

Our analysis found that Florida and New Mexico place caps on the number of charter districts that are allowed to operate in each state. In Florida, only six charter districts are permissible under state law. New Mexico allows only three pilot charter districts that must be representative of large, medium and small districts. What appears to be a broad new freedom from regulation is, in fact, tightly regulated.

In addition to caps on the number of districts per state, some states require cumbersome reports about district progress--seemingly antithetical to the freedom from paperwork one would expect a charter district to possess.

And the process of chartering a district could discourage any but the hardiest of superintendents. In New Mexico, for example, Superintendent Sue Cleveland was determined to charter her district, the Rio Rancho Public Schools. The process, she discovered, was arduous. Legislation had to be drafted and compromises reached.

The Rio Rancho Public Schools, a district founded seven years ago, has expanded rapidly over the last decade. Hungry for freedom from state regulations, the community joined school staff to support the notion of chartering the district.

And the process required nothing less than an all-out political campaign or what Rio Rancho's superintendent saw as a different type of referendum.

The positive part of such a campaign was the clarity all educational stakeholders needed to have to articulate their goals for student achievement and school governance. They also needed to think through a strategic plan to use the new freedoms offered by charter status. All of these requirements, superintendents told us, were a plus.

Formidable Questions

The process of applying for the charter can galvanize a community and school staff, but it also drains staff energy and considerable other resources. The hoops these superintendents must clear to achieve chatter status for their districts are daunting.