By Jay Mathews - Washington Post
I admire the erudite and public-spirited members of the Montgomery County Board of Education. Their superintendent Jerry D. Weast is one of the best in the business a national leader with a smart staff.
So why are they so frightened of two little charter schools?
The Maryland State Department of Education shares my puzzlement. It looked carefully at the two most recent Montgomery charter applicants Global Garden Public Charter School and Crossway Montessori Charter School and promised them a $550000 grant each once they got their charter approved. The charter groups had fresh ideas energetic supporters and experienced educators including two members of the Global Garden board who worked in Montgomery schools.
That was not enough to quell the fears of Weasts staff and an assortment of internal and external advisers. Weasts nine-page summary of their worries reads like a neurotic mothers letter to her son at summer camp bemoaning all the terrible things that might happen to him.
Montgomery County has never approved a charter school. These independently run public schools use tax dollars but dont have to follow school district rules. On average they do about as well as regular public schools though the best charters lead the country in raising the achievement of low-income children. Those are the kids the Montgomery charter groups most wanted to help.
As my colleague Jenna Johnson reported recently the school board rejected both proposals. Now the Maryland State Board of Education has asked it for a better explanation of its decisions which the state panel called vague and at best confusing."
I thought the state board was exaggerating. The people on the Montgomery school board would never treat hardworking and well-meaning educators like that. But I just read the two resolutions they approved and think the state board was too kind. The resolution on the Global Garden proposal was 214 words and the one about Crossway Montessori was 221 words.
They reminded me of those responses you get when you complain about a tax bill: Our experts say you are wrong. Go away.
Montgomery County schools spokesman Dana Tofig acknowledged that the resolutions did not specify reasons for denial." He noted they are not required to do so under state law. Essentially they said: None of the other county school boards in Maryland have to justify their almost universal paranoia about charter schools so why should we?
Tofig said the board will share its reasoning with the state soon. I am sure the experts who helped Weast prepare his memo are sincere in their view that the charter school plans are not good enough. They didnt like Global Gardens commitment to psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyis concept of flow" a state of engagement and fulfillment. They fretted that Crossway Montessori might not be able to keep its public and private funds separate.
They ignored the possibility that those issues could be taken care of with the countys guidance once the charter people got rolling as happens when any public school opens.
Still Montgomery County has a special Web site for charter applicants. Board members say they would be happy to approve a proposal if they ever got one they liked.
What are the chances of that? In the District charters are approved by the D.C. Public Charter School Board which is independent of the public school system. That board doesnt see charters as unnerving competition but as a way to give parents more choices and teachers an opportunity to be creative. It has approved some charters that failed and closed them. It has also approved some charter plans that were less impressive than the Montgomery applications but that blossomed.
The D.C. board let energetic teachers give it a try. It is sad that the fine people in Montgomery County running one of the nations best school districts lack that courage and the confidence that imaginative educators can find better ways to help more kids.
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