Proposed charter school fix given an A by experts

Three national experts gave their stamp of approval to a proposed overhaul of Hawaii’s charter school law at a briefing Wednesday at the state Capitol, saying the plan will add accountability to the charter school equation.

"You have taken a really bold move by taking aggressive steps to say we’re going to improve our charter school law, we’re going to put our strong support behind building a strong charter school movement," said Lisa Grover, senior director of state policy and advocacy for the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools.

"Many state legislators are not willing to do that. They want to throw the baby out with the bath water and say we want to just get rid of charter schools, or they just go with the status quo," Grover said.

Grover spoke at a briefing for legislators led by Sen. Jill Tokuda and Rep. Della Au Belatti, who co-chaired the Charter School Governance Task Force, which worked for several months to craft the new guidelines for Hawaii’s charter school system. Also present were Greg Richmond, president and chief executive officer of the National Association of Charter School Authorizers, and Stephanie Shipton, education policy analyst for the National Governors Association, who agreed that the task force’s bill would dramatically strengthen Hawaii’s charter school system.

Richmond said that many good things are happening in Hawaii’s charter school world, including public and student engagement, but added that one crucial piece has largely been absent in the monitoring of charter schools.

"The purpose is supposed to be better academic outcomes," Richmond said. "That was missing in action. These task force recommendations go a long way to putting that in place. … Overall it is just a fantastic step forward."

He lauded several aspects of the proposed legislation:

» Putting charter schools on performance contracts.

» Requiring the charter school authorizer to report annually on outcomes at the schools.

» Altering the membership of the authorizer and the schools’ governing boards to focus on qualifications.

» Giving applicants who want to open a charter school just one chance to apply each year.

Richmond also suggested clarifying in the bill that charter schools must measure up to clear goals to have their charters renewed.

"What we recommend is, renewal is supposed to be based on the performance you achieve over the first five years, it’s not based on a promise to do better," Richmond said. "Anyone can always promise to be better."

Hawaii’s charter school law is ranked 35th out of 41 jurisdictions in an assessment by the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, Grover said. She predicted the ranking would improve "significantly" if the changes were approved and implemented.

"The premise of a charter school law is more autonomy in exchange for higher levels of accountability," Grover said. "By ensuring that a charter school authorizer will enter into a performance contract which would be reviewed annually and again over a five-year period, you are taking a stand on behalf of the kids."