Commentary: Give more parents the schools they want

4/23 • News • Florida • Orlando

In an opinion piece in the April 13 Orlando Sentinel, Pat Drago of the Florida League of Women Voters attacks the Constitution Revision Commission proposal that would allow the Legislature to establish new forms of charter school oversight.

Drago writes the measure would politicize the system and allow charters to “pop up anywhere, whether they’re needed or not.”

As the parents of two sons (7 and 4), my wife and I know the reality to be considerably different from Drago’s portrait of makeshift, profiteering charters. Most parents only turn to charters when district schools fall short — and there simply are not enough charters to meet parents’ demand, something a statewide board could alleviate.

The proposed amendment is aimed at helping Florida families by improving education offerings. Our family’s experience illustrates this.

When it came time for our older son to attend school, we toured the district school in our area. The classes appeared crowded and unruly. We knew this would not be the right environment for our son and applied to a charter school specializing in science.

But because that charter is so popular, applicants are entered into a lottery, and we weren’t fortunate enough to be selected. We then had to decide to whether to send our son to a public school we did not trust or pay for a private school.

Because my wife and I work, we could choose private school, though at a considerable sacrifice. We now spend more on school (my young son also goes to the private school) than our mortgage payment. This will change next school year because we have been able to enroll our older son at Renaissance Charter School at Crown Point, which recently opened.

But in contrast to Drago’s warnings about charters popping up like mushrooms, we have found there are not nearly enough of them for parents who, for whatever reason, want an alternative to district schools. It is telling that more than 280,000 Florida students now attend charter schools and 107,000 students are on charter schools waiting lists. These numbers show parents are finding charter school efficient and responsive — and want more of them.

I like the idea of charters because it maximizes my education tax dollars, which go to both public schools and to the charters that some families find necessary.

Charter schools are not unaccountable, as Drago says. They are public schools that operate under a performance contract. They are given freedom from some regulations governing public schools but are held strictly accountable for academic and financial results. Poor classroom results or fiscal mismanagement can cause a school to lose its charter.

The proposal by the CRC is not some sinister corporate plot. The Education Commission of the States reports that 35 of the 44 states with charter school laws allow some form of statewide authorization. The arrangement is not unusual.

Like Drago, I strongly support public schools. I am a sixth-generation Floridian, and our family always has been proud that an ancestor was one of the first teachers in Orange County. Allowing more charter schools, and providing parents’ more options, will enrich the education landscape, not diminish it.

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