Reform By Charter

School Administrator, August, 1997 by Donna Harrington-Lueker

Instead of offering new and innovative programs, charters instead can end up looking "just like all the bureaucratically protected schools," says Bailey.

Fuller, director of the Institute for the Transformation of Learning at Marquette University, offers a harsher assessment: Powerful interest groups--and he includes superintendents in that camp--have fought charters tooth-and-nail in many communities. Now, largely Out of necessity, many school leaders and union representatives declare they're in favor of charters. Their words and actions are at odds, though. Instead of fostering innovation and allowing significant flexibility, "they use all the old bureaucratic ways of sucking up reform ... and try to make charters as much like the existing schools as they possibly can," says Fuller. "They try to re-regulate you in the name of accountability."

Working out that balance between accountability and autonomy might be the biggest challenge superintendents face, many say.

"This is just the largest stretch I've ever made as an administrator," confesses Gilpatrick, the superintendent in Verona, Wis., when asked about creating an environment where schools with different philosophies can develop and grow. "But if you go in with an open mind and look at your district goals, you're likely to see pieces and corners at charters might help you reach."

Donna Harrington-Lueker is an education free-lance writer in Newport, R.I.

Passions Run Deep on All Sides

For former Milwaukee Superintendent Howard Fuller, the question of whether or not a superintendent supports charter schools is a question of how the school district's top administrator views change.

If a superintendent is committed to making fundamental change in a school system that has resisted reform--or if he or she wants to create more options for children and their families--then charter schools are an ally, not an enemy.

Nor is Fuller, who spent nearly four years as superintendent of the Milwaukee Public Schools, troubled by any shift in funds from the school district to the charter school. "My view has always been: The money isn't the superintendent's or the school system's, it's the family's, it's the children's. The same state that authorizes local boards can also give another public body the option of offering education."

Ask other superintendents about their attitudes toward charter schools, though, and the answers vary.

In Arizona, home of the country's most free-wheeling charter school law, George Garcia, superintendent of the Tucson Unified School District, questions the wisdom of his state's legislation, which has given rise to 167 charter schools serving 17,000 students--the largest concentration of charter schools in the country.

"In times of limited funding, our legislature and governor have chosen to be free-spending with charters," says Garcia. "But the legislation leaves a lot to be desired when it comes to supervision, monitoring, and accountability."

Other superintendents echo Garcia's argument and voice additional reservations. "I'm concerned that, like a private school, a charter school will be selective in its clientele," says John Fotheringham, executive director of the Washington Association of School Administrators. "Personally, I think [a number of charter school organizers] want their kids to be with their own type."