Polk County Schools Board of Education passed a resolution March 14 requesting members of the North Carolina House of Representatives make significant changes to legislation known as Senate Bill 8 regarding charter schools.
Superintendent Bill Miller said his biggest concern lies with funding.
“We believe that Senate Bill 8 has wording in it that is in there on purpose so that we would have to share any penny of money that comes into our schools,” Miller said. “When a booster gives money, when a band parent raises money … we would have to send them some of that money. We believe they have wrote that in there on purpose so they can get some of that money.”
Currently under North Carolina law, local funds reserved for education follow the student. This means if a parent in Polk County moves their student from a Polk County traditional public school to a local charter school – Thomas Jefferson Classical Academy and Lake Lure Classical Academies in Rutherford County and Mountain Community School in Hendersonville – the average per pupil expenditure of $1,867.13 is transferred from Polk County Schools’ annual allotment to the chosen school.
For Polk Schools this amounted to a loss of $334,148 this school year, according to Polk BOE Finance Officer Charlotte Sullivan.
The families of 83 students living inside Polk County limits chose for their children to attend charter schools instead of local traditional public schools. Five of those students attend Mountain Community School, 20 attend Thomas Jefferson Classical Academy and 58 attend Lake Lure Classical Academy.
Joe Maimone is cofounder and headmaster of Thomas Jefferson Classical Academy.
Maimone said Senate Bill 8 would enrich educational opportunities in the state by offering parents more control over their children’s education.
“Anytime parents have more say in the education of their children, the better off everyone is. Choice in education just like choice in going to the doctor or any other service commodity is a good thing,” Maimone said. “And its good for the community too because it always increases the conversation of education within the community. That is a very positive thing that we do when we allow alternative forms of education,” he said.
Non-profit boards of directors run charter schools, Maimone said. They must file for a non-profit status under 501(c)(3) and go through a rigorous application process through the state, he added. He said concern about funding for these schools is misguided.
The North Carolina School Boards Association thinks its not. This board originally drafted the resolution approved by the Polk County BOE, which several school systems across the state have approved.
The resolution requests assembly members at a minimum revise the legislation so traditional public schools: “1) are not required to share in self-sustaining, fee-based programs such as child nutrition; 2) are not required to share preschool and other federal funds (such as free and reduced lunch) with charter schools that do not provide these programs; 3) are not required to share fund balance reserves and 4) are not required to share reimbursements (such as facility rental fees and activity bus fees) to which charter schools have no legitimate claim.”
The resolution also requests that N.C. Governor Bev Purdue veto any legislation that does not include these changes.
Originally North Carolina capped the number of charter schools allowed to exist at 100.
Currently 99 charter schools operate in the state of North Carolina with more than 36,000 students attending. Another 20,000 students remain on waiting lists, according to the N.C. Alliance for Charter Schools.
Maimone said those working to eliminate the cap have worked for more than a decade with well-run charter schools.
“The good news is we have 14 years of experience under our belt to know what creates a quality charter school. You are getting folks who have been involved and are interested in the benefit of charter schools.”
Miller said he doesn’t agree that there should be no limit on the number of charter schools allowed in the state or no minimum on the number of students required to create a charter school. He said he feels more perplexed by additional language in Senate Bill 8. Miller said he thinks changes that occurred during the process of senate approval drastically altered the bill. The bill originated as a one-page document and steadily grew with amendments to a 23-page document, according to a representative from House Representative David Guice’ office.
But even within all those pages, Miller and Polk County BOE chairman Geoffrey Tennant said the legislation needs to be made more clear as to what money must be shared between traditional public schools and charter schools and what money will not be shared.
“What our board and other boards are saying is, ‘Let’s apply some rudimentary rules of logic,’” Tennant said. “If you are going to make a law at least consider two words – clarity and equity.”
Tennant said charter schools should not have access to any portion of funds generated by fund raising of band boosters, for example, or from grants written specifically by public schools for programs not provided by charter schools such as after-school programs for low-income families.
Miller said he also does not believe many of the foundations currently supporting Polk County Schools would approve of any portion of their funds being sent to a school in another county.
“We’re elected officials in charge of trying to make sure our community has a good school, and siphoning money from us to give to them isn’t going to make that happen,” Miller said.
State Senator Tom Apodaca, 48th District, who represents Polk, Hendersonville and Buncombe counties, cosponsored the No Cap on Number of Charter School bill or Senate Bill 8. He said opponents don’t have the facts straight.
“They come up with anything they can to block a charter school – transportation, food, buildings – [charter schools] are not receiving public funds to build buildings; they must do that on their own,” Apodaca said.
The N.C. Alliance for Charter Schools argues the bill returns the wording of the law to its original context when written in 1996. A statement provided by the Alliance on Thomas Jefferson Classical Academy’s website states, “traditional school systems are obliged to openly share ‘all local current expense funds’ with charter schools.” It further states, “In short, programs funded in traditional schools by tax dollars may be different in charter schools, but the dollars for these programs must flow through to charter schools to allow for these innovations. Other accusations of taking away lunch money, field trip money, a teacher classroom grant, or ROTC money is unfounded. If these funds are accounted for properly in the traditional system, they would be considered ‘donor-restricted’ and would not have to flow to charter schools.”
Apodaca said he believes the bill has been amended in such a way as to eliminate Miller’s and Tennant’s concerns.
He said changes are expected to limit the creation of charter schools to 50 within a given school year and to require a minimum of about 50 to 65 students to establish a charter.
“We think charter schools are a good option for our people to have a choice about how they educate their children,” Apodaca said. “Choice is not a bad thing – we see it working well in a lot of places.”
Apodaca made it a campaign promise, along with what he called the “unlikely company of President Obama,” to encourage access to charter schools. He said in North Carolina that meant pushing for the elimination of the charter school cap.
Parent Kelly Marshall said she hadn’t paid much attention to charter schools until Senate Bill 8 came up. Now she’s concerned about what it could do to the education of her kids’ who currently attend traditional public schools in Polk County.
“I feel like we already have an issue which is we have kids that are going to charter schools which is sending money to another county when these kids are going to charter schools in Rutherford County,” she said.
Several years ago Marshall lived in Atlanta with her husband and five kids who attended private school.
When her husband died, Marshall could no longer afford private school and moved in search of a quality school system. After one system didn’t meet her standards, Marshall said she moved to Polk County and loves the schools.
“I moved to Polk County because of the school system because the schools were excellent and the community invests in the schools here,” she said. “I do have empathy for parents who have children in poor schools. I can understand why they would want to do it. On the other hand it doesn’t seem fair to a county that has worked very hard to provide a great education.”
Miller said the legislation stirs heated debate.
“It is separated around Republican vs. Democrats. It’s separated around rich vs. poor. It’s separated around public schools vs. getting what you want – it’s separated around some really tense issues,” Miller said.
A staff member for House Representative David Guice said Rep. Guice has yet to put out an official opinion and likely won’t until its more clear what kind of bill will appear out of committee.
She said Guice’ office has received a lot of calls from administrators and parents, as well as letters from students on both sides.
Guice is relaying that information to representatives working directly on the bill in committee, the staff member said. The piece of legislation was most recently re-referred to the committee of finance.
Marshall believes it’s all about finances.
“I think the argument has to be … how much financial stress can our school system handle next year,” Marshall said. “We have to determine what would be nice to have and what is necessary. Does that mean the county should be punished and have to dig deeper and come up with more money? Those dollars can get lost in a bigger school system but in a smaller place like Polk County every dollar counts.”
Miller said he expects the situation to move in one direction or another within the next five months either through an appeals court decision on pending lawsuits or the legislature and governor.