The BANDaid Approach

Jerry Covey gets their attention...but is this really the solution...follow the money, or, lack of!

Revolution in rural Alaska education? Many embracing regional schools.

Suzanna Caldwell | Nov 26, 2012

Despite almost two decades of working in rural Alaska schools, Iditarod School District Superintendent Scott Ballard still wasn't prepared when his daughter decided that she wanted to attend Mt. Edgecumbe High School in Sitka.
“Those are some of the most important years,” Ballard said from McGrath, a village of about 400 located 200 miles northwest of Anchorage. “You certainly don't want to not be able to have that close family bond when they're in high school.”
Ballard's predicament is one many parents living in rural Alaska face. Legal rulings in the 1970s mandated high schools in tiny, off-the-road villages across the state. Before then, high school students had two choices: Stay in their village home, surrounded by family and a familiar culture, or leave to attend four years of boarding school.
While the Tobeluk Consent Decree, also known as the Molly Hootch Act, made it possible to establish high schools in off-the-road villages, those schools have struggled to keep up with their on-the-road counterparts. Some parents, like Ballard, watch their children leave home for Mt. Edgecumbe -- a state-run residential high school with about 400 students from across the state -- or move to Anchorage or Fairbanks to pursue educational opportunities unavailable at village schools.
“Those opportunities to learn and explore a wide and deep curriculum that you might have on the road system just isn't available to them.” Ballard said.

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Six Principles of Quality Charter Schools

Continuing its national effort to support and promote high-quality public charter schools, the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools has released a new publication: Principles and Standards for Quality Charter School Support Organizations. Six fundamental principles for effective CSOs are defined and examined: quality, sustainability, advocacy, technical assistance and services, community, and growth. Standards that describe the essential responsibilities and practices that align with the overarching principals are provided throughout the document.

NAPCS Six Principles (.pdf 526.04 KB)

Businesses Support Charter Schools

At a time when many students are not graduating from high school prepared for postsecondary education and work, two-thirds of the new jobs being created require advanced training or a college education. Business leaders believe that high-quality education is paramount to America’s ability to compete globally. Charter schools, as independently operated public schools, strike many business leaders as one of the most effective ways to have a tangible effect on pre-K through secondary education.

Download Corporations, Chambers and Charters: How Businesses Can Support High-Quality Charter Schools. (.pdf)

Charter School Executive

With an unprecedented increase in the number of public charter schools anticipated over the next 5-10 years, our movement must act now to prepare the school leaders of tomorrow.

"Charter School Executive: Toward a New Generation of Leadership" recommends that a new kind of leadership development system is needed in addition to improving the current pipeline. Importantly, through collaboration within the movement, we must create a new kind of leadership credential granted by highly-qualified local institutions. In the end, evaluation of this system should be based upon student achievement gains in the schools headed by the leaders who hold this credential.

Download the report below to find out more on how we can support the next generation of school leaders. (.pdf)

SUPPORT Senate Bill 57

Senator Joe Thomas
February 9, 2009

Charter School Funding: Senate Bill 57

• Charter schools are public schools that provide valuable education options to Alaska families.

• The existing school funding law results in charter schools that enroll fewer than 150 students receiving 30% to 45% less state funding than neighborhood schools of their same size.

• Inequitable funding limits communities’ ability to create and sustain these schools.

• Charter schools may have fewer than 150 students because:

- Community factors result in a an unexpected and temporary dip below150

- A new school may have difficulty reaching 150 in its first year

- The targeted student population the school is designed to help is not sufficiently large (e.g., at-risk middle schoolers)

- A charter school with more than 150 would have an adverse impact on the community’s neighborhood schools

- A small school size is critical to the success of the program.

• There is a dramatic decrease in funding ($500,000 - $700,000 loss) when a charter school’s enrollment drops from 150 students to 149, which creates a financial crisis for both the school and its host district.

• Senate Bill 57 solves the funding problem in an equitable, fiscally responsible manner.

• SB 57 funds charter schools with fewer than 150 students at the same per-student rate as neighborhood schools with 400 students.

• SB 57 contains a one-year, hold-harmless provision for charter schools that are either in their first year of operation or had more than 150 students the previous year, reducing the financial damage to their district.

• SB 57 will allow school districts to carry out the intent of the legislature in creating the charter school law, by increasing quality education options available to Alaska families.

• SB 57 is supported by the Alaska Association of School Boards, and superintendents and parents of charter school students from across the state. The bill has been co-sponsored by Senators Thomas, Stevens, Elton, and Davis.