Indiana

Improve Education & Cut Costs-It Can Be Done

By Abdul Hakim-Shabazz

I’m on “vacation”  for the next couple weeks.  The following is a guest column by Kevin Teasley, The President of  the Indianapolis-based GEO Foundation.

The state?s call for savings in education combined with the public?s on-going need to improve schools can appear to be quite a challenge and indeed it is.  However, this challenge isn?t anything new to the state?s public charter schools.  Most charter schools already operate on funds equal to half the total funding traditional schools receive.  Public charter schools don?t receive funds for their buildings?yet they have them?and they don?t receive funds for transportation?yet many provide bus transportation to their students.  They also don?t receive extra dollars for debt retirement (like traditional schools), either, yet they certainly have debt.  On top of this, some charter schools actually go beyond a traditional K-12 school and pay for their students to earn college credits while they are still in high school.  How do they do this?

Check the administration costs at charter schools and compare them to traditional schools.  You won?t see many people not in the classroom.  Check the transportation expenses, too.  You will see many schools have contracted out for this service and/or they are using used buses.  And the bus drivers don?t just drive a bus and call it quits for the day.  Some drivers actually spend their days in the schools they serve helping out with other school needs.  Some schools share their buses with other schools to save even more money.  Check the health insurance plans, too.  Some schools saved money by not using a broker.  Most don?t offer a gold plated package.   I don?t know of any charter school superintendent (they don?t exist) or principal getting a car allowance, or professional memberships paid for by the school, either.

Charter schools don?t have empty buildings on their expense sheet, either.  They don?t have to maintain empty buildings?that saves money. In fact, many are trying to obtain existing empty public school buildings (without much success).  And when they do get buildings, they do everything they can to keep the interest rates low.  Many have gone the New Market Tax Credit route saving thousands of dollars in lower interest rates.  Traditional schools pass bonds and these expenses onto the taxpayer, charters don?t.

Several charter schools don?t even have a gym.  Herron and Fountain Square Academy don?t have gyms.  Both made AYP last year and both were among the city?s top schools in PL221 improvement last year.  Both are located in buildings that served different purposes prior to being converted to their current school purpose.  Fountain Square Academy has one of the highest levels of at risk student populations in the city, too (the school is located just blocks away from Manual High School).

Fall Creek Academy and Charles A. Tindley Accelerated school are among several charter high schools that provide college access to their students.  Fall Creek Academy has more high school students taking college level classes at Ivy Tech than any other charter school in Indianapolis.  Tindley students can earn college credits from Anderson University free of charge on the Tindley campus.  Both schools have seniors graduating with more than 30 college credits in 2010.

The state?s schools can cut costs AND improve education outcomes?public charter schools already are.

Full post as published by Indiana Barrister on December 22, 2009 (boomark / email).