2 officials object to charter schools

Public schools are outperforming charter schools, state report cards show.
By AMANDA GARRETT
and TIM YOVICH
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
WARREN -- Two Trumbull County school officials are speaking out against charter schools, saying they provide a substandard education and take much-needed state funding away from public schools.
Warren city schools took out a full-page newspaper ad asking parents to look carefully at the "community schools" -- as charter schools are called in Ohio -- popping up in the area. The ad also features a list of academic statistics that question the effectiveness of charter schools.
Warren Superintendent Kathryn Hellweg said the district created the ad to counter misrepresentations by charter schools.
"For too long, community schools across the country have been misrepresenting the quality of their education without being challenged," she said today. "Every child deserves a good education, and every parent deserves to be informed about their child's education."
Community schools in Ohio are set up by private organizations, but they receive federal funds in a manner similar to that of public schools. They function as "alternative public schools," Hellweg said.
Niles schools Superintendent Rocco Adduci is also critical of the community schools for luring students away from the public schools. He calls attention to expensive literature parents have been receiving through the mail.
"Now your child can go to school without having to go to school," one mail advertisement says from a Columbus-based community school. The students are taught through a computer link, Adduci explained.
Reasons given by parents
He said parents are pulling their children out of public schools and enrolling them in community schools for such poor excuses as they don't like the teachers, low grades or they didn't make the football team.
"There is no face to this," Adduci said of the students' sitting in front of a computer rather than in front of a teacher.
Attempts to contact the Ohio Charter School Association by phone, fax and e-mail were unsuccessful.
Adduci noted that if 50 Niles students transferred to community schools, the district would lose about $275,000.
When a student transfers to a community school, Adduci said, the district loses between $2,300 to $2,700 in state funding, while the community school is paid $5,500 by the state for each student it enrolls.
Adduci believes community schools leave a lot of unanswered questions, such as who passes and who doesn't, what is the teacher-student ratio, and how much are the students actually learning?
The criticisms come at a time when charter schools are not performing as well as public schools on proficiency tests.
Only 6.3 percent of Ohio charter schools received an excellent rating in the Ohio Department of Education's report cards, which were released last week. In comparison, 37.6 percent of traditional public schools received an excellent rating.
On the flip side, 31 percent of charter schools are in academic emergency, compared with a 4.1 percent rating for traditional public schools.
Charter schools also fared poorly in meeting federal standards for academic achievement compared to regular public schools. Three-fourths of charter schools -- 74.3 percent -- failed to meet the federal requirements to make Adequate Yearly Progress, according to Ohio Education Department Statistics. Only 38 percent of traditional public schools did not meet the federal standards.
To view the ad, see Page B3 in Tuesday's Vindicator.
agarrett@vindy.comyovich@vindy.com