An MSM look at the burden posed by charters

The San Gabriel Valley Tribune (not really a mouthpiece for teachers' union radicals) looks at the negative impact charter schools have on school districts. Pasadena is currently grappling with the sudden financial collapse of a new charter partway through its first year.

Charter school issues are particularly relevant in SFUSD right now because of the stresses on Excelsior Middle School and James Denman Middle School caused by two charter schools' demands for sites, which Prop. 39 requires SFUSD to meet.

Charter Schools' Rise Weighs on Districts

Petitions to establish independent facilities getting more scrutiny
By Caroline An, Staff Writer
April 12, 2008

PASADENA - Financial problems that threaten to close at least one charter school in Pasadena highlight the role school districts play in approving and ultimately overseeing these independent schools.

Charters are largely independent of districts that approve them. And while they are funded by the state and are held to the same benchmark standards that public schools must adhere to, the allure of charter schools has been the freedom they have to develop their own curriculum and control their own budgets.

But district oversight of charter schools is becoming more strict, officials said.

While the majority of charters are in the Los Angeles Unified School District, charter schools - which typically cater to a certain demographic or offer a more specialized curriculum - are now beginning to make their impacts felt at school districts across the San Gabriel Valley.

District officials attribute the rise in charter schools to dissatisfaction with the quality of regular public education and, to some extent, recent decisions by school boards to close campuses to allow districts to save millions of dollars.

With the state's looming budget deficit, officials say that charter schools - now more than ever - can capitalize on these recent developments.

"The charter operators know when sites are vacant. With districts publicizing school closures, charters will exacerbate the problem," Baldwin Park Unified School District Superintendent Mark Skvarna said.

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