No Big Island Charter Schools to benefit

[PauHana]

Every child use to be entitled to a public education, but now "Public Education" is entitled to every child.

This video from Taiwanese Animators pretty much sums it up how the world see us.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JrgpxoS8nzE

[csgray]

eigoya,
The whole lottery system has been changed with the latest changes to the charter school laws, so you might want to check with HAAS again.

Carol

[eigoya]

Thank you CS. We went by Connections when we first arrived, summer 12 and although the lobby window appeared open, I couldn't find anyone to get an application from, but I had a good student from there taking a running start class with me....

[csgray]

I'm so sorry about that, we run on a pretty lean staff in the summer and whoever was running the office must have stepped out to take care of something. A whole bunch of my former students have done the running start program, Connections requires all our students to do some sort of post secondary class to graduate so you will probably see more. I hope you are happy with where your kids are now.

Carol

[knieft]

Charter schools operate on less than half of the budget compared to "regular" DOE schools, which the OP correctly stated got the recent money. Charter schools (excepting conversions) get no money for facilities, or a pittance depending on the whims of the legislature. There is no such thing as a private charter school.

As a charter school teacher, I can be "non-renewed" each year. There is no tenure, which I think is how it should be. A "regular" DOE school can't get rid of a bad teacher unless they <snip>.

The waste in DOE is HORRIFIC. If the public only knew! Some basic math. Let's say Hawaii spends 10K per student per student per year (it is way more, especially including SPED, which is often more than 20K per SPED student). These are all lowball (DOE) or highball (charter) numbers so no one can say I'm padding this analysis.

A 4th grade class I had at Keonepoko years ago had 34 students, but lets say, 30 students (padding).

30 X $10,000 is $300,000 dollars. Let's say the teacher's salary is $50,000 (padding), that leaves $250,000 for overhead: materials, principals, librarians, Oahu and outer island DOE educrats,etc.

How does that compare to a real world classroom budget at a charter school? I have on average 16 5th or 6th grade students at a Puna-based Charter school, and the per pupil DOE "reimbursement" has varied over the years, but let's use 7,000. 16 students X $7,000 is $112,000. Take 50k for the teachers salary. That leaves $62,000 for overhead. Even at $10,000 per year classroom rent, that leaves $52,000 for furniture, books, materials, computers, utilities, etc--much of which could be considered a depreciated capital expense that won't be needed every year.

One can bicker the details of the actual numbers, and I remind you again I am lowballing/highballing all of this, but what happens to that extra $188,000 overhead PER CLASSROOM (250k-62K) at Keonepoko and every other regular DOE school? Keonepoko has a library, covered play court, etc. but these things are paid for as facilities, whereas charter schools must somehow pay for their own land, buildings, or usually rent, out of their per pupil allowance. (Some extra SPED money goes to charter schools, but it also goes to regular DOE schools, so it doesn't really change the basic argument here.)

How is that kind of overhead tolerated in a democracy? The waste is absolutely HORRIFIC. People who run their own small business would _love_ an overhead (above salary) figure like that, no?

As far as the lottery system goes, this is a result of the demand for charter schooling outstripping the supply. Frustrating all around, but the DOE, BOE, and legislature keep the charter schools down by the pathetic charter funding, throwing the big money at the "regular" schools, as the OP stated.

coastal, thanks for redacting your original stance in light of the facts. There is so much misinformation out there about charter schools in Hawaii.

Cheers,
Kirt

[csgray]

Kirt,
I agree with a lot of what you say, but as both a charter school teacher and a former small business owner (20+ years before I became a teacher) I think your loose analysis does miss a lot of the required overhead that is hammering charter schools because small charter schools lack the economies of scale to absorb things like secretaries, front office people, counselors, SSC (student services coordinators who do very important work), book keepers, administration, title I coordinators and so on. When the cost of these people are spread across literally thousands of students at DOE schools, instead of hundreds at charter and small schools, it is easy to see why charter schools and small rural community schools are really hurting.


Carol

[knieft]

Hmmm. I thought I was slamming the DOE's overhead spending black hole. But, yes, your point that there is non-teaching costs to be paid is very valid...

Cheers,
Kirt

[csgray]

Well the DOE certainly doesn't take advantage of that economy of scale, and the highest levels of administration is certainly ridiculously top heavy, how many $100,000+ per year administrators does a district really need?

Carol

[Rob Tucker]

Precisely. DOE is managed to death by people who don't really care about education.

[snorkle]

Also, coincidentally, it's those $100,000 a year administrators that lunch with the Governor.