For-profits raise questions

By April M. Silvaggio  

SEPTEMBER 20, 2010 8:44 a.m. (0)

Last year, charter schools in Greenville County received $10 million in state funds.

The six schools educate slightly more than 2,100 children in elementary, middle and high school programs. One, the Meyer Center for Special Children, is for preschool children with disabilities.

Three of the schools are operated under the auspices of Greenville Technical College, whose high school just won the National Blue Ribbon Award. A seventh school opened this year.

There has been tension between Greenville County Schools and the various charter schools, largely because charter schools are allowed to operate without a lot of the same requirements mandated for the public schools.

That was the point when the law was passed 14 years ago. Encourage innovation through some measure of freedom.

But with the entrance of Connections Academy and Lead Academy some are asking whether there is a loophole in the law that allows private businesses and religious institutions to get public money.

Greenville County Schools Trustee Chuck Saylors said he wonders whether lawmakers should look at whether a for-profit, private company should be able to form a nonprofit charter school.

“I just want our public schools to be competitive,” Greenville County Schools Trustee Leola Robinson-Simpson said. “I wish we had the same opportunity to get rid of some of the regulations.”

Under state law, a charter school is a public, nonreligious, non home-based, nonprofit corporation that operates within a public school district or the South Carolina Public Charter School District.

Each is accountable to the school board in the district that granted its charter. But nothing was written in the 1996 law that prohibits a private company from forming the nonprofit corporation that ultimately becomes the school.

Connections Academy, a private company headquartered in Maryland, operates in 17 states including South Carolina. The company’s annual revenue stands at $120 million and has increased an average of 35 percent a year since it was founded in 2001.

It was the state’s first virtual charter school, and is authorized by the South Carolina Public Charter School District to operate as an alternative to the traditional classroom. The school serves students in grades K-12 from anywhere in South Carolina.

In September 2004, Connections Academy was sold to an investor group led by Apollo Management.

The South Carolina Virtual Charter School is another online public school operated by a private company. It opened in August 2008, is headquartered in Columbia, and is also authorized by the South Carolina Public Charter School District.

Because both are public schools, tuition is free and they are open to all students who live in South Carolina.

Lead Academy is a non-religious school, but is affiliated with Redemption World Outreach.  Mary Carmichael, president of the South Carolina Charter School Association, said there is no difference in the South Carolina Connections Academy and every other company connected to public schools that turns a profit, whether it involves selling food to cafeterias or textbooks for teaching.

“Plenty of private businesses are making a profit off public education,” she said.

Across the state, she said, charter school programs are meeting needs of students public schools had previously failed to serve. Some charter school programs focus on the basics, like reading, writing and traditional subjects that some children struggle with. Others have special arts, music or college credit programs, while some offer single gender classes.

Dropout prevention programs are available, as are opportunities for children with special needs.

“The primary reason for charter schools is to make sure every child has access to a quality education,” Carmichael said. “With the freedom and choice to do so, charters set higher standards and must meet them to stay in business. Most other public schools stay in business no matter how poorly they perform. They are the ticket to higher quality schools.”

“I think they add another choice option for parents and students,” said Megan Hickerson, chairman of the Greenville County school board. “I don’t think they take anything away from our public schools.”

Statewide, 38 charter schools operate, serving more than 10,815 students, and at least six more have received approval to open next year.

There are more than 5,000 charter schools serving more than 1.5 million children across the U.S.

Thirty-nine states and the District of Columbia have charter school laws. But of those 40 laws, only 13 are strong enough not to require significant revision, officials with The Center for Education Reform in Washington, D.C., said.

Across the country, charter schools are funded at about 61 percent of their district counterparts, studies show. On average, that equals about $6,585 per pupil compared to $10,771 per pupil at conventional district public schools.

In South Carolina, charter schools receive about $4,682 per pupil or an estimated 49 percent less than the $9,643 students in conventional public schools get, Carmichael said.

Pam Niemi chose Lead Academy for her 10-year-old daughter because of its focus on values. “My daughter is an excellent student, but she needed a structured environment that we just weren’t seeing in her public school classroom.”

Three years ago, members of Redemption World Outreach noticed during some programs there were children who weren’t performing academically to their fullest potential.

In May 2009 a final charter school application was submitted to the state Board of Education as well as the Greenville County school board. The charter was approved in June 2009.

“As a family, we have values we are teaching,” Neimi said. “But public school hadn’t always supported those values. Here, they are very supportive of what we are doing at home. All of that was kind of nipped in the bud.”

It doesn’t sit well with Niemi when she hears people question whether taxpayer dollars should go to support schools influenced by churches or private business.

“Obviously, you have a gut level reaction,” she said. “But then I tell them I’m also a taxpayer, and this is one of the choices the legislature has given me as a parent. And it happens to be what is right for my child.”

Julie Anna Hartwell, who oversees public school choice and innovation for the state Department of Education, said people who have an issue with the way charter schools are funded perhaps don’t understand the law.

“The buck always stops with the charter school’s board,” she said. “Some might use a private company to deliver the curriculum, but that company doesn’t run the school. The board has the responsibility of making decisions. So it might be a misinterpretation. But in those situations, the relationship would be more like that of a vendor.”