SOUTH BRUNSWICK: Officials address virtual charter schools

By Charles w. Kim, Managing Editor
   PRINCETON — After successfully opposing a K-2 Mandarin immersion charter school, officials in two local districts are now turning their attention to the world of virtual charters.
   ”No (good) track record at all, no data throughout the nation (on their effectiveness),” Princeton School District Superintendent Dr. Judy Wilson said in a recent interview. “We should be really smart about what we know and what we don’t know.”
   Dr. Wilson testified in front of the New Jersey School Board last week to voice support for a year-long moratorium on the virtual classrooms.
   The proposed 850-student New Jersey Virtual Charter Academy, which was to open in September and draw students from districts statewide, was denied a charter by the State Department of Education last month and given an additional “planning year” to meet DOE requirements.
   That school is one of several using the K-12 Inc., educational system.
   According to the company’s website, K-12 is a publicly traded company in Virginia that is the nation’s largest provider of proprietary online education programs in students from kindergarten through high school.
   More than 2,000 schools in all 50 states currently use the system to power both online and “blended” educational opportunities, according to the company.
   The company, however, has been criticized in published reports of placing its bottom line ahead of educational excellence and is being sued by a group of investors for allegedly violating security laws, according to the website for the U.S. Eastern District Court in Virginia.
   Company officials did not return calls seeking comment.
   The state Legislature has been considering the moratorium among several reforms of the state’s 1995 charter school law that allows entities to form schools, funded by taxpayer money, to operate in the state.
   Initially, the law targeted failing urban districts in cities like Newark, Camden and Trenton, but has expanded to several suburban districts as well during the administration of Gov. Chris Christie.
   Gov. Christie supports expanding the schools, which are supposed to become “laboratories of innovation” in the state’s education system, according to the 1995 law.
   As written, charter schools were to be established using new ways to help children learn and then, transmit those best practices to the public school districts in an effort to increase the quality of education for all students, according to the text of the law.
   The partnership between public schools and their charter counterparts, however, has become tumultuous and resembles a legal battlefield rather than a harmonious union of educational techniques.
   During the last two years, Princeton, South Brunswick and the West Windsor-Plainsboro districts shared public resources to hire an attorney to fight the proposed Princeton International Academy Charter School’s planned opening at a facility on Perrine Road in South Brunswick.
   That school would have taken 170 students and about $1.8 million from the three districts if it opened next month.
   The South Brunswick Zoning Board of Adjustment turned down the school’s application earlier this year and then the State Department of Education denied its final charter, effectively killing the venture.
   Dr. Wilson, who serves as superintendent in a district with the successful Princeton Charter School said that the law, while meaning well, is not living up to its expectations and is, instead, draining scant resources from districts that are not failing and where there is little need for such schools.
   She referred to a recent audit of public schools by the DOE where the most at-risk schools were labeled as “priority schools.”
   ”We know there are (public) schools that are not successful, we know there are schools that the state has just labeled as ‘priority schools,’” Dr. Wilson said. “Start there. Let’s put our efforts (there) and do it well.”
   In addition to holding off virtual charters for a year, Dr. Wilson also said she supports legislation to allow communities to vote on if a charter should be opened in the community.
   Besides demanding more accountability and oversight for brick and mortar charter schools, Dr. Wilson said she is concerned about the isolation and lack of supervision students in virtual charter schools would face.
   Another official, South Brunswick’s Superintendent Dr. Gary McCartney, also said he is concerned that the data available does not show virtual schools to be as effective as brick and mortar counterparts.
   ”I have a whole bunch of concerns,” Dr. McCartney said. “There should be a lively and spirited debate. Is this the best approach?”
   Although he has concerns about the virtual schools, especially in the younger grades, he said he feels every student should be exposed to virtual learning during their educational careers, but that exposure should be tested and verified before placing students in that environment.
   ”We should have answers to all the questions (first),” Dr. McCartney said. “There shouldn’t be a rush to judgment.”
   Like Dr. Wilson, Dr. McCartney is also wondering about how the virtual schools would be funded and how much say the communities the school draws from would have.
   ”How do we pay for (virtual schools)?” Dr. McCartney said. “Wouldn’t every district in the state have to weigh in?”
   With a brick and mortar charter school, the sending district pays 90 percent of the per pupil spending to the charter for tuition.
   If PIACS had opened in South Brunswick next month, the district would have paid about $350,000 to the school for 35 students.
   It will be paying something for students going to the Thomas Edison Charter School this year.
   That school will take some South Brunswick students when it opens its doors next month.