District could benefit by leasing buildings to charter schools

The Columbus Dispatch

12/16/2006

Jennifer Smith Richards

While central Ohio charter schools have scrounged for buildings - settling on warehouses, empty big box stores and even at an old go-cart track - Columbus Public Schools’ surplus buildings were off-limits.

After all, why would the district help its competition?

But state lawmakers might create an incentive for the district: If it leases property to a charter school, the district could claim the school’s test scores as its own.

A bill awaiting concurrence from the Ohio House of Representatives next week would encourage school districts to help charters by offering real estate or other significant services. And if that charter school is doing well, the school district can benefit by using the charter students’ test scores. A district also can decide not to swallow a school’s scores, but it must make the choice at the beginning of the year.

Other education issues also remain under discussion in the closing days of the legislative session, including making vouchers for private school tuition available to all poor students, not just those in struggling schools, and expanding the charter school law so that they could open in districts with buildings classified in “continuous improvement,” the equivalent of a C on the state report card.

Currently, charter schools are allowed in Ohio’s big, urban districts and in ones in “academic emergency,” the rating equivalent of an F. The charter leasing measure could benefit any school district in the state that wants to reach out to a high-performing charter school. But it means more to Columbus, which is expected to be home to at least one KIPP school starting in 2008. Eventually, there could be five local KIPP schools.

KIPP, or Knowledge is Power Program, has been used in successful charter schools in other states. Organizers are now seeking buildings and eyeing the district’s surplus schools, including the four that could shut down this summer, said Mark Real, who heads KidsOhio.org, a Columbus group that studies school issues and has worked to bring KIPP to the city.

The Columbus Public Schools back the bill because KIPP students generally do well, Superintendent Gene Harris told legislators in a letter.

The lease-for-test scores agreement has other perks, too.

“One of the advantages to involving Columbus Public Schools as a landlord here is they can be part of the decision of . where KIPP should locate,” Real said. The district does not “want KIPP to open up across the street from a high-performing Columbus public school.”

Also, Real said, KIPP is likely to attract children from other charters. One study suggested that as much as half of KIPP’s enrollment will come from low-performing charters.

If legislators reject the bill, it would dash the district’s ability to accept KIPP’s test scores and would mean KIPP couldn’t operate as an Ohio charter school.

Current charter law allows school operators that run successful schools in other states to replicate here. But KIPP doesn’t operate schools. It’s more like a franchiser. KIPP searches for school leaders, trains them on how to use the KIPP model of longer days, harder work and no excuses, and then supports the school from a distance.

“If it doesn’t pass, it would be a huge blow to the efforts of Columbus to improve educational opportunities for its neediest children,” said Terry Ryan, vice president for Ohio programs and policy for the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation in Dayton. Fordham is the charter-school sponsor that plans to oversee the Columbus KIPP schools.

KIPP could operate in a traditional public school, but the national organization prefers to be in charters because they’re more flexible.

The two KIPP-related provisions are attached to anti-bullying legislation and so far have met little opposition, officials say.

Legislative leaders continue to debate what to do about a second education bill that has sat in a joint conference committee for 10 months but now could be loaded with charter and voucher amendments.

House Republican leaders reportedly have proposed what one Senate Republican called “massive” expansions of charters and vouchers, state funds to allow a student to attend private school.

Advocates of more charters and vouchers hope to get them approved before Gov.-elect Ted Strickland, who has not shown support for expanding those programs, takes office.

But the two Senate Republicans on the conference committee have expressed opposition to those ideas and instead are pushing for things such as a charter and voucher study and more-efficient ways to close failing charter schools.

“There are a lot of questions as to the effectiveness of vouchers and charter schools, while making sure public accountability measures are in place,” said Sen. Randall Gardner, R-Bowling Green, one of those conference committee members.

Dispatch reporter Jim Siegel contributed to this story.

jsmithrichards@dispatch.com