With Ohio’s failing charter schools getting most of the attention, the state’s more successful charter schools say they’re struggling to attract good quality teachers.
Ohio Public Radio's Andy Chow reports.
Leaders of successful charter schools overwhelmingly say they want failing charters to shut down. That’s one response from a new survey which polled top-performing charter schools, including David Taylor’s Dayton Early College Academy.
Taylor: “I think you’ll hear us yelling that from the mountaintops. I mean there’s no one who’s more of an opponent of bad charter schools than people who are running successful charter schools.”
The study involved more than 65 charter school administrators from schools that got a C or higher on their state report cards. The results also showed that 80% want to grow and add more schools to their ranks – but only if they are high performing. But they say there are barriers that stand in their way, such as a lack of funding and the struggle to attract quality teachers.
Taylor’s school system is K-12 and serves more than 1,000 students. According to Taylor, out of every dollar that follows a student from a traditional public school to a charter school, only 60 cents goes towards that child’s education.
Taylor: “The reality is -- the vast majority of kids that come are being underserved because we don’t have the funding that we should so I think that there should be a call for some way to sort of rectify on this funding.”
The issue of charter school funding has been cast back into the spotlight with both traditional public school administrators and charter school advocates calling for a change. The most commonly-suggested solution is to fund the charters directly, rather than siphon the dollars from a traditional school district’s pot after a student leaves for a charter.
And as for the problem of staffing charter schools - 85% of the charter school leaders say they struggle to find good teachers. Ann Duffett is with the Farkas Duffett Research Group, which conducted the survey of the charter school leaders.
Duffett: “We heard them say -- I think about 52% -- said that it’s always going to be hard to find teachers because of the lower salaries that charter schools offer and a lot fewer said that it’s a problem they can overcome.”
Taylor recognizes the challenge of finding teachers along, with Hannah Powell of KIPP schools. KIPP is in Columbus and serves about 800 students. Right now they have a Kindergarten through 2nd Grade school and a 5th grade through 8th grade school. But their plan is to become a pre-K-12 school by the end of the decade.
Powell says attracting successful teachers is about getting them to join in on something special.
Powell: “I think the ability to build a school -- literally -- to create a system of schools is really kind of -- in some ways -- a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. So I think that we’re finding people that are really drawn to that.”
Andrew Boy with the Columbus-area’s United Schools Network agrees that swaying teachers means selling their philosophy.
Boy: “There is an aspect of ‘this is who we are, this is what we do, do you believe in it?’ And if we can get to the ‘yes’ and ‘we can believe’ and have the trust that we’ve got the person who believes in what we do -- I think then we talk about how we’re going to develop you. Then we talk about how we’re going to support you in a classroom.”
There were several different school leaders in the downtown Columbus meeting room as the results of the survey were announced - including what might seem like an unlikely face, a traditional public school board member.
Charlie Wilson is with the Worthington City School board. He says the two sides should try to find a way to work together and create an open line of communication -- to serve in the student’s best interest.
Wilson: “I wish that all of us were committed to doing everything we can to improve our schools. Especially when we’re talking about taxpayer dollars being involved and we’re talking about children’s lives being involved. I think it’s so critical that we do all we can to maximize a child’s potential.”
Powell, with KIPP schools, agrees.
Powell: “There’s a ton to learn so if we keep kind of isolated ourselves and putting ourselves in these silos we’re gonna end up not being able to accomplish what we need to do.”
Supporters of charter schools have long said that they need to have fewer rules and regulations than traditional public schools so they can operate with more flexibility and be more experimental. But the survey also found that most administrators would be for more regulation and oversight if that resulted in weeding out the bad charter schools in Ohio.
