Can Charter Schools Operate in Virginia?

The policy of permitting states to create charter schools for its students is gaining a great deal of momentum in academic circles. In fact, at last count, 44 states, including Virginia, have opened the door to allow charter schools to operate within their boundaries. Virginia has only opened four charter schools to date, enrolling a mere 240 students. By comparison, neighboring North Carolina has opened almost 100 such institutions.

The idea behind charter schools started as a response to dissatisfaction with the current public school system. There was a school of thought that the public schools were failing for a number of reasons, including, but not limited to, scarcity of money, under qualified teachers and archaic teaching methods. As concerned parents and officials of local jurisdictions began to analyze the problem, many questions surfaced. Why should a child have to go to a failing school just because of his/her geographic location? What can be done to close the achievement gap between white students and minority students? If the existing school system is failing, can we do better? From these questions were borne the outline of the charter school policy.

Generally, there was a feeling of helplessness as stakeholders feel separated from the process and felt like the legislative system in place would not be able to improve public education to a level of their liking. Not being able to find a suitable alternative policy, these stakeholders acted on the feeling that they needed to take matters into their own hands.

Some general definitions of charter schools include the following:

·         Elementary/secondary schools that receive public money without having to adhere to public school rules and regulations

·         An alternative to other public schools, but without the ability to charge tuition

·         Magnet schools, or schools that provide a specialized curriculum in a field, whether it is arts, science or math.

For the most part, charter schools are more prominent in urban school districts, such as Chicago and Washington, D.C. Some schools thrive, while others are struggling. New York City's Promise Academy is an example of a charter school enjoying tremendous success by virtually erasing its achievement gap between black and white students.

However, the success of charter schools is a debatable topic, and this is probably the reason why the state of Virginia has been slow to push this policy of offering alternative education to students and parents who are unsatisfied with the state of their neighborhood school.

To date, Governor Bob McDonnell has seized the opportunity. He is planning to loosen restrictions on new charter schools. Currently, the local school boards must approve potential new charter schools. Under McDonnell's plan, charter school organizers may appeal to the Virginia Board of Education in the event of being rejected at the local level. This may help to resolve conflict at the lower level, as local school boards tend to resist competition, especially in the form of a charter school. In cases where a school division has one or more failing schools, the request for a charter school could be made directly to the state. While realizing that the charter school is not the only cure-all, the Republican nominee for governor has been noted in a recent Virginian Pilot-Online editorial as at least putting considerable thought to the issue and developing a solution to the education problem, using charter schools as a viable alternative while keeping an eye on the 72 failing schools in the Old Dominion.