Senate panel OKs change for charter schools Issue will be discussed locally tonight, Swinford says

Published 11:59 am Wednesday, February 22, 2012

As two schools in the Vicksburg Warren School District teeter on the edge of being charter-eligible, the Mississippi Senate Education Committee on Tuesday passed a charter school revision act, sending it to the floor for debate expected to begin today.

The Mississippi Public Charter Schools Act of 2012 would revise the processes of establishing and funding charter schools in the state.

Members of the committee sent the bill forward after removing a provision to allow online charter schools. They also amended it to let charter schools sponsor pre-kindergarten programs. No state money is now provided for students 4 and younger.

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No other amendments were offered, though some committee members and others continue to say they want to allow school boards in districts that are rated Successful to get a say in whether charter schools are established. As drafted, the bill allows only High Performing or Star districts, the two highest ratings on the state scale, to get a veto over potential charter schools.

Locally, Warren Central Intermediate and Vicksburg Junior High have been rated At Risk of Failing for two consecutive years in state accountability ratings. If their ratings do not improve after this spring’s state testing, they could be turned into charter schools, said Vicksburg Warren School District Superintendent Dr. Elizabeth Swinford, who is not in favor of the idea.

“I’ve never seen any research that supports that charter has made a difference in the life of kids,” Swinford said. “Charter is not the silver bullet.”

Swinford said the Senate bill is too vague in delineating how students would be selected, takes public school dollars without giving public oversight of budgets and does not spell out whether students can be taken from any school in the district or just from the area where the existing school is being converted.

“Will it take the top students in the entire pool? What’s going to happen to the other kids? How is that helping kids, if there is a charter school with just good kids taking college prep and a school with the leftovers that didn’t get accepted?” she asked.

Reportedly, the Senate bill allows charter students to cross district lines and take their per-student funding with them.

“My preference would be that charter schools are targeted to less-than-successful districts,” said Sen. David Blount, D-Jackson, a committee member who described Tuesday’s committee meeting as “the beginning of the process.”

Though Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves and other Republican leaders are heavily pushing charter schools, some education groups remain heavily opposed.

The Mississippi Association of Educators, for example, is against the bill because it allows uncertified teachers, excludes the schools from the Public Employees Retirement System and exempts them from state laws governing the disciplining and firing of teachers.

Others voice fears that the bill is a Trojan horse to re-segregate the state’s schools.

If you go

Vicksburg Warren School District Superintendent Dr. Elizabeth Swinford will discuss charter schools and their possible establishment with members of the Board of Trustees at their meeting today, beginning at 5:30 p.m. at the central office at 1500 Mission 66.