The program for under-served kids focuses on more time in classroom.

Suburban News

7/19/2007

By JENNIFER NOBLIT

A national organization sponsoring charter schools focused on helping students through extended classroom time won’t be hindered by new rules in the state budget.

The moratorium imposed on new charter schools in Gov. Ted Strickland’s original two-year state budget was not approved. However, organizations will have to follow some rules when establishing new charter schools.

Charter schools are funded by state per-pupil dollars that follow students from their home schools to charter programs. Strickland cited a lack of accountability as his motivation for the proposed moratorium.

Strickland’s spokesman Keith Dailey said an “accountability mechanism” was passed with the budget that keeps charter schools from opening unless they are run by an entity already running a charter school in the state. New rules also said other schools run by the entity must be rated at continuous improvement or better to start up a new school.

The new rules will not stop the Knowledge is Power Program, or KIPP, from establishing its first school in Ohio, though.

Kristi Phillips-Schwartz is Ohio Policy and Information Manager for the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation. She said its sponsorship with KIPP will keep the new rules from affecting the planned opening in the Columbus area.

“Our understanding is that a new start-up community school would be able to open if it’s contracted with schools already operating in Ohio,” she said.

KIPP national spokesman Steve Mancini agreed and said Columbus will be home to one of two new schools next year.

“We only have two new cities that KIPP is going to in the country — Columbus and Minneapolis,” he said.

“There are only two new cities for KIPP in 2008. Our aspirations are to open a KIPP middle school for fifth-graders in the summer of 2008.”

Because charter schools are not restricted by the rules that govern other public schools, KIPP students get 60 percent more educational time than traditional schools.

Mancini said students attend school from 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays, as well as every other Saturday and in July.

Principals also receive special training and hand-pick teachers for their school, Mancini said.

“KIPP has a national track record of getting under-served kids ready for college,” he said.

With 58 KIPP schools nationwide, Mancini said he’s seen a lot of support from residents of Columbus since announcing the new school.

“There’s been a clear commitment by businesses and education — they wanted a KIPP school,” he said.

“In Columbus, folks are in it for the long haul.”

A school for fifth-graders is in the works, but Mancini said more schools are planned for the area.

“(We have) a commitment to grow more schools. We’re not just going to start one school and stop,” he said.

“We want a region of KIPP schools, a network.”

While KIPP has not been affected by the new rules for charter schools, others could be.

Phillips-Schwartz said the Fordham Foundation has been looking into methods to make charter schools more accountable.

Recommendations include strengthening the system of charter school sponsors, funding charter schools fairly and opening high-quality charter schools.

“The Fordham Institute and Foundation supports quality and accountability for charter schools in Ohio,” she said.

Matthew Carr, Education Policy Director for the Buckeye Institute, criticized the new rules for charter schools and said it might keep promising schools from opening.

“It’s a bit overly restrictive,” he said.