Forum: Charter school editorial missed point
May 7, 2012 11:14PM SouthTown Newspaper
We at the
Illinois Network of Charter Schools were dismayed to read your April 23
editorial questioning the funding for Southland College Prep Charter High
School, a successful charter school serving students in Rich Township.
The editorial
suggests that state funds are being unfairly taken from Rich Township High
School District 227 for the state-authorized charter school, resulting in less
opportunity for District 227 students.
With respect to
funding, the editorial misses the central point — under the Illinois charter
school law, money is designed to follow the student.
When a student
in District 227 enrolls at Southland College Prep, the money for educating that
student transfers to the charter school. Certainly, District 227 cannot contend
that it should receive public funds for students it does not educate.
With respect to
educational quality, there is no dispute that Southland College Prep is a
desperately needed, high-quality option for students in District 227.
Southland
College Prep exists because some community leaders and parents organized to
create a public school alternative to the District 227 schools, where in 2011
only 28.5 percent of students met or exceeded standards on the Prairie State
Achievement Exam.
Now in its
second year, the charter school is doing so well that demand substantially
exceeds the current capacity of 125 students per class. A lottery determines
which students enroll.
The grand irony
is that District 227 spent an estimated $140,000 on a fruitless lawsuit to try
to prevent Southland College Prep from opening.
In its decision
in favor of the charter school, the Illinois Appellate Court said it had “no
doubt that the establishment of the charter high school is in the best
interests of the students it was designed to serve and, eventually, its
establishment may well serve the best interests of all District 227 students to
the extent the academic success of the charter school raises the educational
bar for the other three high schools.”
We agree.
Jill Gottfred
Policy manager
Illinois
Network of Charter Schools
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