Tuesday, November 14, 2006
A Good Kind Of Cap
Last winter I ended up getting some angry correspondence after I suggested that parents at Albany's New Covenant Charter School didn't have to wait around for the state to shut them down, they could run for the hills while they still had a chance.
There are tons of justified complaints about how arbitrary and artificial the "cap" on the number charter schools in New York State is. But the Parent Cap is real. No one puts a gun to the head of a parent (at least not that we've read about) and makes him or her send their child to a public charter school. And even if they do select a charter school, parents have enormous power to stick it to the charter school man by bolting if they aren't getting what they want out of the experience. In that sense, parents form an important "cap" that stunts the growth of crappy charter schools. But they have to take their role seriously.
I just mention all of this as we start to see several instances where this is playing out in New York State. While some public charters have wait lists that are a mile long, at others we see parents who, after kicking the tires, just aren't all that into what a few charter schools are offering. It's just the way school choice works in the real world.
New Covenant is in the news again, for example, because it has asked the state to allow its enrollment to shrink from 935 to 700 students. (Note to New Covenant parents: When SUNY Trustee Randy Daniels is quoted in the press saying "my patience [with New Covenant] is rapidly nearing an end" and CSI's James Merriman diplomatically states "The school, to be kind, simply can't attract students," it's time to read the writing on the wall...)
But New Covenant isn't alone. Last week, Buffalo's KIPP Sankofa Charter School also made headlines after it faced its own enrollment crisis. The school had planned to enroll 360 students this year, but asked the state to reduce the number to 250. (At one point this year, enrollment was at 194 students.)
Likewise, the Child Development Center of the Hamptons Charter School is cutting back on its enrollment projections from 135 students to 85.
If you build it, they will come... but only if you offer families something that is perceived to be markedly better than is already out there.
Ditch the statutory cap on charters, and grow the Parent Cap.
There are tons of justified complaints about how arbitrary and artificial the "cap" on the number charter schools in New York State is. But the Parent Cap is real. No one puts a gun to the head of a parent (at least not that we've read about) and makes him or her send their child to a public charter school. And even if they do select a charter school, parents have enormous power to stick it to the charter school man by bolting if they aren't getting what they want out of the experience. In that sense, parents form an important "cap" that stunts the growth of crappy charter schools. But they have to take their role seriously.
I just mention all of this as we start to see several instances where this is playing out in New York State. While some public charters have wait lists that are a mile long, at others we see parents who, after kicking the tires, just aren't all that into what a few charter schools are offering. It's just the way school choice works in the real world.
New Covenant is in the news again, for example, because it has asked the state to allow its enrollment to shrink from 935 to 700 students. (Note to New Covenant parents: When SUNY Trustee Randy Daniels is quoted in the press saying "my patience [with New Covenant] is rapidly nearing an end" and CSI's James Merriman diplomatically states "The school, to be kind, simply can't attract students," it's time to read the writing on the wall...)
But New Covenant isn't alone. Last week, Buffalo's KIPP Sankofa Charter School also made headlines after it faced its own enrollment crisis. The school had planned to enroll 360 students this year, but asked the state to reduce the number to 250. (At one point this year, enrollment was at 194 students.)
Likewise, the Child Development Center of the Hamptons Charter School is cutting back on its enrollment projections from 135 students to 85.
If you build it, they will come... but only if you offer families something that is perceived to be markedly better than is already out there.
Ditch the statutory cap on charters, and grow the Parent Cap.
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