OREGON

Tiayana Marks & Elly Jo Rael

Background Information
          The charter school debate is currently going on in 
Oregon.  Some of the arguments in support of the charter 
school bill include the following:
        1) Charter schools allow for freedom to develop 
innovative curricula, focus on specialized learning areas, 
and create more efficient and productive organization.4
        2) Charter schools are held solely accountable for 
insuring that their students meet state educational 
standards, and in exchange for this responsibility the 
regulation burdens are lifted.  Deregulation gives charter 
schools the freedom to allow for creative teaching and 
learning.5
        3) Charter schools help local boards assume a policy 
role as opposed to the role of the provider.  Charter schools 
allow the school to be the provider of public education.6
        4) Charter schools allow choice for everyone not just 
those who can afford to choose alternate schooling for their 
children.
        
        Arguments against charter schools are based on the 
following concerns:
        1) Charter schools will suck money away from public 
schools because public money follows students to charter 
schools, and because private schools are eligible to convert 
to charter schools.7  
        2) There are concerns about what percentage of the per 
pupil expenditure would follow students to their respective 
charter schools.  The average per pupil expenditure is just 
that, a statistical average.  The academically "average" 
student, however, is relatively inexpensive to educate.  The 
non-average students, those who have special needs or who 
face significant obstacles (i.e.. students with discipline 
problems, students who are mentally challenged or at-risk, 
and students who are learning English as second language) are 
more expensive to educate.8
        3) Charter schools will become elitist, and public 
schools will be the dumping ground for the most difficult to 
educate.

Currently
        Charter school bill 2892 has passed in the house and is 
awaiting action from the senate.  Some of the important 
provisions of the bill include the following (see House Bill 
2892):
        1) Parents, teachers, school administrators, or any 
other persons or groups may submit a proposal for a charter 
school.
        2)  Charter school proposals are to be submitted to a 
sponsor.  A Sponsor is defined as a board of a common school 
district, a union high school district, an education service 
district, a community college district, an institution of 
higher education in the State System of Higher Education or 
the State Board of Education.
        3) If a sponsor rejects a proposal the applicant may 
resubmit the proposal after amending it, or the applicant may 
submit the proposal to another sponsor.
        4) A charter school is a discrete legal entity.  This 
would give charter schools a lot of autonomy.  
        5) Charter schools must meet requirements for student 
performance or be subject to closure. 
        6) Charter schools must have a way to inform families of 
prospective students of the availability of the charter 
school to ensure that members of racial and ethnic groups 
have an equal opportunity to choose that school.