There are several differences between a traditional public school and a charter public school. These differences include autonomies allowing the school’s board the ability to be more nimble and innovative making decisions in the best interest of their students. These are autonomies we believe all public schools should have.
An additional difference is charter public schools have a closure process. If the school is unable to effectively meet the academic needs of the students it can be closed. This has been a major shift in Missouri where historically poor academic performance has meant traditional public schools receive more money and continue operation year after year, decade after decade.
Is school closure appropriate? Consider that every child deserves a high-quality education in an excellent school and a school only has one chance at educating the students. That can only happen when schools are accountable for their performance. While never an easy decision to close a school, we can’t allow students to remain stuck in a poor-performing school when there are better options. But what if there aren’t better options?
You may have recently noted the headline that Confluence Academies, a network of four charter public schools in St. Louis had their contract renewed for an additional five years despite instances of low academic performance mixed with instances of emerging positive academic performance. Would closure have been the right option? The simple answer is no, not in this case and that leads to the rest of the story.
As part of a diligent contract renewal process the School’s Sponsor, the University of Missouri, Columbia, analyzed the academic performance of the neighborhood public schools where students would enroll if their charter school closed. In multiple instances, the performance of the Confluence Academies Schools exceeded the academic performance of the traditional neighborhood public schools. The actual results can be reviewed on the Missouri Charter Public School Association’s website at http://www.mocharterschools.org/. What became clear to the School’s Sponsor was that non-renewing and closing the Confluence Academy Schools would have resulted in many, many students being forced to enroll in lower performing public schools not benefitting their education whatsoever.
Closure of a school is never an easy decision. You are disrupting students’ lives, displacing teachers and staff and affecting the entire neighborhood and community. It’s a decision that always deserves to be taken seriously by the school’s board and sponsor. However, as disruptive as a school closing can be it’s even worse for a student to be stuck in a poor performing school losing educational opportunities day after day. However, in cases when it’s determined closure will mean forcing the students to enroll in even poorer performing schools it is simply the wrong decision.
Ultimately there should be no poor performing public schools in St. Louis. It’s imperative the charter public schools and traditional district schools all work together to make that a reality.
Dr. Douglas Thaman
Executive Director, Missouri Charter Public School Association
Missouri Charter Public School Association
1300 Papin Street · St. Louis, MO 63103 · 314.776.3551 · Fax 1.888.877.6890 www.mocharterschools.org
