In The News.
Cutting small-school funding will cripple successful charter schools. A recent op-ed column by the Rev. Charles Becknel and Moises Venegas proposed actions by the Legislature that would hinder and possibly put an end to charter schools and alternative education.
Some points made are sound business actions that all public education districts, schools and charter schools should act on and be held accountable. Ongoing monitoring, teacher evaluation and strengthened overall accountability for all public schools are desperately needed.
The proposal to cut small-school size adjustment for any school should be considered an option. Both rural schools and charter schools need this funding to adequately operate and for charter schools to continue to offer alternative education where the large-based school districts do not.
Refer to the Dec. 20 article, “Higher Learning,” on the front page of the Albuquerque Journal. This was a positive article about charter schools and what alternative education is all about.
Not only does the aviation course allow a student to learn the skills required in piloting an aircraft, but this course work also incorporates the advanced skills and learning in math, science, reading and writing. It is not a wonder why the Southwest Learning Centers have approximately 3,000 students on their waiting lists for grades 4 through 12.
Southwest Learning Centers is also listed as a top-ranked public school along with the state’s private schools. The traditional public schools are not included in the top-ranked schools.
Removing the small school funding that the Southwest Learning Centers utilizes will hinder the ongoing and highly successful educational programs at this charter school. There are other very successful charter schools that fit into this same category and they must have the small school funding to adequately operate.
These successful charter schools have dedicated, educated and experienced administrations. These administrations run a lean operation and provide a higher percentage of funding to the classroom experience. The dedicated experienced educated teachers and staff utilize this much-needed funding to develop and provide an alternative educational environment. This alternative environment provides daily experiences for their students to become positive members of our community.
The Dec. 20 editorial regarding the denial by the Public Educational Department for three charter schools brought up critical questions about alternative education. Again, it is the small, progressive an proactive charter schools that may not attain the established proficiency rates, but consider the population at these schools. Would these students score as well as they did in a traditional Albuquerque Public Schools school that only tries to put a square peg into a round hole? What will the PED require of the very poor performance recorded at the APS schools? Throwing more money into APS does not help, as shown by the overall lack of performance.
Charter schools attract many student and parents looking for the alternative style in education that will reach their children. This is why the charter school movement or revolution is so critical in a state like New Mexico where our education is near the bottom of the countr5y. A comment made by a staff member at the Southwest Learning Centers summed it up: “We treat everybody the same; we treat them all as individuals.”
As a parent of a graduate of a charter school, this vision statement is a primary reason for my son’s success. An eminent failure and potential dropout of APS traditional education was saved by the alternative approach to education.
Members of our community, legislative members in New Mexico and educators need to become involved and understand what a charter school can do and what it does provide for its students. Cutting funding is not an intelligent action when we need every possible alternative to reach our students in this state.
Instead of cutting the funding, let’s learn from the successes generated from alternative and charter schools and then demand improvement in the traditional public education systems.
By Kenneth Chapman / Albuquerque resident
Posted January 12, 2011