Parents Pin Hopes on Charter School Lottery
The following is a reprint of an article originally published
on April 2, 2010. The Republican-led state House is considering a bill
that would remove a cap on charter public schools. The original bill
that allowed charter schools placed a cap restricting the number of such
schools that could be authorized. In 1999
and 2002, the cap was kept in place with the help of three House
Republicans. Will there be a different outcome this time?
The metal bleachers in the middle of the school gymnasium fill slowly with expectant parents and playful youngsters.
All of the adults are here on this warm spring afternoon for the same reason: to find out if their children will gain admission to South Arbor Academy, a Washtenaw County public charter school that has become so popular that it conducts a public lottery each spring to divvy up any openings in its K-8 program.
Kindergarten is the most sought-after spot. The school has 77 seats available for the fall of 2010, but about 51 of those will be taken by siblings of students who already are enrolled at the school. That leaves only 26 seats to be filled by lottery, out of 206 applications.
Carmen Foster, an emergency room physician with the St. Joseph Mercy Health System, is one of the applicants.
"We looked at a number of schools. By far this was number one," said Foster, citing the school's academic track record and character education program. A native of Romania, Foster said that as a youngster herself, "We had a very vigorous education, which I definitely want for my children."
School Principal Tim DiLaura has heard similar comments in the past.
Beyond academics — South Arbor ranked seventh in the state and third among public charter schools on the latest Michigan Educational Assessment Program tests — he said the school culture and a focus on meeting student needs are attractive to parents.
"We have a physically and emotionally safe learning environment," he told Michigan Education Report.
Spring lotteries take place at public charter schools across Michigan every year. By law, any time a charter school has more applications than seats available, it must conduct a lottery to fill the seats. Siblings of currently enrolled students are given preference.
The Michigan Association of Public School Academies estimates that approximately 12,000 children are currently on charter school waiting lists
"We have parents here who have been on our wait list for three or four years," DiLaura said. This year, South Arbor had no openings in any classes except kindergarten, but had a total of 368 applicants for non-kindergarten spots. All of those names go on waiting lists.
While siblings are given preference, employees are not — a fact that weighed heavily on Michele Buchanan as she applied to enroll her 5-year-old twin sons in kindergarten.
Buchanan is an occupational therapist for National Heritage Academies, the educational service provider that operates South Arbor and 61 other public charter schools in six states. She has been with the company for 10 years and currently works in four schools.
Buchanan applied to enroll her sons in each of five NHA schools in southeast Michigan, hoping to win a spot in one of them. But her sons were wait-listed at every academy until the South Arbor event, when their names were chosen at random for kindergarten seats. (If one twin's name is chosen, the other automatically wins a seat.)
"After four waiting lists, I wasn't sure it would happen," a beaming Buchanan said outside the South Arbor gymnasium after the event.
The two-hour lottery followed a strict protocol, including a rule that it be videotaped. As the camera filmed, the names of all applicants in a given grade were placed in a container and drawn at random by an independent third party. As they were drawn, each name was read aloud and recorded, in order, on one of a series of white posters lining the gymnasium wall. Waiting lists are maintained even in grades with no current openings, in case a seat becomes available during the year.
DiLaura and admissions representative Laura Holliday both try to encourage parents whose children are placed on the waiting list, noting that movement up the list can be faster than anticipated.
"In this town, there's a fair amount of mobility," DiLaura said. That's one reason openings crop up. Another is that, in cases when only some of the children in a given family win seats, sometimes the parents choose to enroll the family in a different school rather than divide up the siblings.
Still, a disappointed Alicia Elie left before the finish. Her son's name was not chosen for a kindergarten seat, and he ended up well down the waiting list.
"It was my number one choice," she said. "I actually don't know what we're going to do or where we'll go."
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Lorie Shane is the managing editor of the Michigan Education Report, the Mackinac Center’s education policy journal.
Michigan Capitol Confidential is the news source produced by the Mackinac Center for Public Policy. Michigan Capitol Confidential reports with a free-market news perspective.
Big PAC Attack
Union PACs should raise their own money
The Michigan Legislature is poised to consider a two-bill package that would prohibit unions from using local government payroll systems to collect PAC funds. This is a step that is long overdue. House Bills 5085 and 5086 passed in the state House Thursday.
While the dollar amounts that flow through union PACs are not as huge as those that flow through unions themselves, government union PACs still pack a wallop. According to reports filed with the Secretary of State, the MEA PAC collected more than $500,000 in donations and spent $1.2 million on its political programs in 2010. In spite of the election-year spending, MEA PAC started 2011 with more than $450,000 in the bank. AFSCME’s “P.E.O.P.L.E.” PAC took in $230,000 in contributions during the same year and spent $320,000, ending the year with nearly $80,000.
This is what is known in political fundraising as “hard” money. Hard money can be spent on nearly anything, including direct contributions to political campaigns. The importance of hard money cannot be overstated. When an outfit called “Citizens Against Government Overreach” led a successful recall campaign against state Rep. Paul Scott, R-Grand Blanc, they managed to achieve their success with a warchest of around $150,000. Almost 80 percent of their funds came from the MEA PAC.
We have long argued that government employee unions themselves are essentially political institutions, even while they present themselves as workplace representatives. In reality, little more than half of union dues go to collective bargaining and grievances; in the case of the MEA that portion is as little as a third. But when dealing with union PACs, there isn’t even a pretense of being apolitical. So when union PACs are allowed to tap into local government payroll systems to collect contributions from government employees, there is no argument that the government is giving political fundraisers a hand.
The temptation for unions and local officials to use PAC contributions as a bargaining chip in negotiations is too strong. Union PACs can and should use their own resources to raise funds.
Michigan Capitol Confidential is the news source produced by the Mackinac Center for Public Policy. Michigan Capitol Confidential reports with a free-market news perspective.