Charter schools survive to fight again

Seven tiny public charter schools without school districts to sponsor them passed a big legislative test this week in their lobbying campaign to stay open. It was the first of what will be many hurdles this term.

The House voted 198-91 to pay Franklin Career Academy Charter School, the Equestrian Charter School in Rochester and five similar free-standing public schools an extra $2,700 per student for 2008-2009. Otherwise, they would operate next year on less than $4,000 per student in state aid.

Under House Bill 1642, North Country Charter School in Lancaster and Littleton and two others founded and backed by their school district would also get an extra $500 per student because their programs can tap into property taxes. The legislation now goes to a work session in House Finance Monday at 9 a.m.

Its chairman Marjorie Smith, D-Durham, called charter schools an important part of public education, but said the ones that do best forge close ties to their local school districts.

“I certainly hope the people who passed that policy have some idea where the money can come from,” Smith said after the vote. “We appropriated an extra $800,000 for (the first three) charter schools in a committee of conference last year. They said they would raise additional money, but those business plans were not completely realistic. I didn’t realize they’d be trying to raise that money from the state.”

If the bill wins approval in her committee, it has to prevail a second time on the House floor, clear two Senate committees, survive in the full Senate and win the signature of Democratic Governor John Lynch. The $1.5-million impact for HB 1642 will be tough to absorb in a declared fiscal crisis. State agencies must eat $52-million in budget cuts and freezes by July.

Two members of Senate Finance said Thursday they don’t know where any new money for charters would come from if the bill reaches them. Sen. Kathy Sgambati, D-Tilton, said all but one revenue stream is below budget projections.

“The difficulty now is we’re not even funding services that were in the budget,” she said. “We’ll do what we can. Every time charters have come to us we have tried to plug the hole.”

Sen. John Gallus, R-Berlin, a Finance Committee colleague, said he knows first hand that North Country is doing a fine job with kids prone to dropping out of a traditional school.

“Somewhere along the way we have to wean them from so much state aid,” he said. “But I’ve seen lawmakers who had no use for them in the beginning change their minds.”

Franklin Career Academy and two other Seacoast charters had spent all their federal seed grants before last year and won their extra $800,000 on a $4,000-per-student basis. But the first checks were delayed in the Department of Education by seven or eight weeks, and the money arrived right before school opened. All three schools lost students and incumbent teachers amid the uncertainty over the summer, and it left big holes in their budgets this year.

Franklin Career Academy has notified parents and students their program would close April 18 without more state aid right away. Part of the problem was the year’s worth of federal seed money the school lost when it closed for a year. The Franklin School District effectively shut the school down by withholding its state aid. Later state money that should have gone into operations had to pay some deferred start-up costs.

Governor Lynch met this week with the school’s principal, Bill Grimm, three state reps from Franklin and the city’s mayor. They urged him to free up an extra $55,000 just to fund the program through graduation. The proposed money would come from the unspent portion of that one-time $800,000 line item.

The Franklin group hopes to hear back next week, but the governor’s spokesman, Colin Manning, said it is clear any lasting solution has to include local support.

“The Governor believes charter schools focused on a specific purpose and supported by the local community can enrich the education of some children,” Manning said. “However, the problem we are seeing arises from a change in the law made five years ago that allowed the creation of charter schools at the state level, without the support of local communities. Today, we are seeing the consequences of that change.”

Manning explained that without local support, charter schools like the one in Franklin are struggling to stay open, even though that particular school receives more state aid per pupil aid than other Franklin public schools receive, though that state aid amounts to only a relatively small fraction of the total cost of education.

Grimm said there is no fluff to the $55,000 request, and he plans to sit in on that House Finance work session.

“I thought the governor asked a lot of good questions, and he sees the big picture,” Grimm said. “We know there is about $185,000 left in the special account for charter schools. So we wouldn’t be taking the money for this academic year from anyone else. If the school closes, I know for sure of six or seven students who would never go back to a traditional school. It might be a lot more.”

Could his school offer an adequate education for a combined $6,700 or so next term if HB 1642 becomes law?

“That is right in the area where the board would have to make a close judgment call,” he said.

Sen. Joe Kenney, R-Wakefield, is running for governor and said the state has to honor its commitment to charter schools.

“We need to give them a chance to survive,” he said. “Give the business model a few more years to prove itself or not.”

Scott Merrick, D-Lancaster, said charters do good things for kids who have floundered in a traditional school.

“But they can’t be allowed to divert money from other public schools,” he added.

Rep. Ed Butler, D-Hart’s Location, said the state owes it to these schools to keep them around.

“They’ve earned a much broader debate on their merits,” he said.

Casey Robinson of Sandwich heads the Statewide Equestrian Charter School and commutes an hour each way to work. One of her students comes down from Gorham for the chance to watch surgery on horses as part of high school and interpret CAT scans of their hooves and intestines.

“It would be a shame if a program like this came to an end,” Robinson said.

Megan Guarino of Gilmanton is a 9th grader at the school and said it’s a pretty amazing place. She watched the veterinarian in charge, Grant Myhre, remove a tumor from an animal’s intestine. The excised tissue looked like liverwurst.

“He had to sew every separate piece of intestine back together,” she said. “It was exciting. Kids here get to be in tune with themselves because they’re doing what they love. The teachers can do what they love too. They’re all into horses.”

So how do you read a CAT scan?

“The dark areas are fluids,” she said, “and the light areas are holes.”

Her dad, Don Guarino, said Equine Charter does a wonderful job for a lot less money than Gilford charges Gilmanton in high school tuition. Equine got none of the $800,000 because it was supposed to be in line for some federal aid this year. But the state lost all of its unspent federal grant money, and a new grant proposal got shot down.

“Governor Lynch is supposed to be the education governor,” the father said. “He needs to step up and protect these charter schools.”