Don’t like how charter schools are funded? Then work to fix it

Last week the Riverhead Town Board got an earful by residents and school officials about a recommendation to allow private schools in industrial districts. The change would enable the Riverhead Charter School’s plans to build a high school and increase its enrollment, likely resulting in more prospective Riverhead students attending the charter school — and more money from the school budget following that child to a quasi-public school. 

This show of force last Monday irked Supervisor Tim Hubbard, who told the packed crowd at the Town Board meeting room that they were barking up the wrong tree. 

“Let me tell you, the money you wasted on [postcards], the money you wasted on the billboard truck, the money you wasted on your posters, should have been spent going to Albany and arguing with the state, who controls the funding for the charter school, not us,” he said. “We don’t control that.”

While we don’t agree with the supervisor that this isn’t a town issue — the topic being discussed was about changes to a zoning district controlled by local law, a fair debate to have with the Town Board — he made an important point that we think gets drowned out, or excluded entirely, in the conversations we’ve been reporting on: the charter school system in New York is broken.

There are plenty of philosophical and practical arguments against the existence of charter schools. Some school district officials and union members believe charter schools are an existential threat to public education. They oppose the Riverhead Charter School and would like to see it disappear. But they need to face the fact that the school is not going away. The best solution to this problem is what Hubbard said: reforming the charter school system to fix the accountability problems and financial impacts that charter schools bring.

State law can do it. In fact, there are several bills pending in the New York State Legislature this session which aim to make charter school funding fairer and more accountable to taxpayers.

Perhaps the most sweeping reform bill in the state legislature has been proposed by Assembly Member J. Gary Pretlow. His bill (A03681), aims to “clarify the transparency and accountability of charter schools and provide fiscal relief to the school districts where charter schools are located.”

The bill tackles many of the problems raised by school district officials. Pretlow proposes that the state fully fund tuition for charter school students, removing any burden charter schools have on local school district tax dollars. Pretlow also proposes that charter schools seeking major increases to enrollment get the approval of the home school district — which could include a voter referendum — and pay their administrators at similar rates as the home school district. 

It also includes reforms meant to safeguard vulnerable student groups, including students from poor families, students with disabilities and English language learners. Critics say charter schools don’t adequately serve these populations or purposefully cast out students who academically underperform. The law would ensure that charter schools treat every student fairly or run the risk of being shut down. 

This is just one of many bills that have been introduced to change how charter schools work in New York. 

But we haven’t seen the teacher’s union or the school board talk about Pretlow’s proposal, or any other. They are left out of the campaign against the charter school. It’s much easier to make a fuss in a small Town Hall meeting room than it is in the halls of the capitol, after all. 

And the battles that have erupted in Town Hall over the past few months have consequences. According to the charter school board’s president, the opposition to the plan to build a high school on Sound Avenue caused the school’s students to feel “as though they are not a part of this community.” 

Oh, yes! Of course! Who could forget about the children in this ongoing saga about money and power? They are the ones who matter — or should, at least. 

The Riverhead Charter School and Riverhead Central School District should not have to fight against one another to make their schools better. They need to be working together to pass state laws that ensure all of their students get a quality education and the funding necessary for it.

The supervisor said town officials would be behind local school officials if they lobbied Albany for charter school reforms. Hubbard and the rest of the Town Board should pass a resolution supporting charter school reform laws. Send it to the state education department, the governor, the state legislature and our state representatives. 

It would be an understatement to say that current communication between town officials, school district officials and charter school officials is dysfunctional. The friction between these groups has caused damage to our community.

But it doesn’t have to be this way. In fact, it definitely shouldn’t be this way. These are all institutions that serve the same people, and they need to be on the same page — for the wellbeing of the residents, the wellbeing of the community and, most importantly, of our children.