There is no excuse in public education for running a failure factory, and there can be no sound reason for allowing one to continue operating for nearly 20 years. 50¶È»ÒÊÓƵ’ Confluence Academy charter schools have to meet state standards for the nearly 15 years they have been operating, and yet the state granted them another five-year license last week.
The board is the highest state authority over K-12 education, but its hands are tied when it comes to closing charter schools — which are public schools. The board says that under state law the best it can do is sanction the schools’ sponsor when schools fail to meet standards.
The University of Missouri-Columbia agreed in 2014 to sponsor , which has 2,800 students in five schools in 50¶È»ÒÊÓƵ. The charter network when its previous sponsor, the Missouri University of Science and Technology, put it on probation in 2012.
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Gerry Kettenbach, MU’s operations, says Confluence is headed in the right direction after a long struggle. Confluence has been warned that MU will withhold sponsorship if it is not meeting state accreditation standards in three years, he added.
If Confluence was within the traditional public school system, it would have lost accreditation long ago. At what point do authorities declare enough is enough? This is the second time the state board has renewed Confluence’s five-year charter, despite a persistent record of academic failure.
Charters initially are granted a 10-year license and must renew every five years or be shut off from state funding.
The state’s charter-school rules don’t impose rigorous oversight and accountability, partly by design. They are independently run and publicly funded, and intended to be autonomous from state and local school board meddling. They can usually establish their own operating rules and curriculum and seldom employ union teachers. Charter advocates say that allows greater flexibility and innovation while helping them sidestep bureaucracies that lock in failure at troubled schools.
Granting greater autonomy is understandable, even laudable, provided that schools meet or exceed minimal academic performance standards. But minimal standards must be applied regardless of where a child attends school.
Charters were supposed to offer a better alternative to traditional public schools, with the promise they would close if they failed to perform. The issue is who is empowered to close them. Mike Jones, the state board’s 50¶È»ÒÊÓƵ representative, is frustrated that sanctioning sponsors is the board’s only legal leverage. In traditional public schools, the board can revoke accreditation or close an entire district that does not meet standards.
Newly sworn U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos is a of charters. But we’d wager that even she would be appalled by the failure factory in Missouri.