I hope someone from the administration reads this and gives a copy to the mayor to qualm the perception of those against charter schools.
http://newssun.suntimes.com/3245455-417/charter-schools-state-crossing-prairie.htmlLake County- IL
GRAYSLAKE — Students at Lake County’s only charter school are among the highest achieving in the state.
Ninety-six percent of third- through eighth-graders at Prairie Crossing Charter School in Grayslake meet or exceed state standards for academic achievement. The state average is 81 percent.
Prairie Crossing Charter School, which opened in 1999, places special emphasis on learning about the environment. Students explore the woodlands, prairies, lakes and organic farm in the Prairie Crossing subdivision. They grow vegetables. They study environmental design. In winter, they track foraging animals through the snow and drill holes through a frozen pond to check the depth of the ice. The school is a co-founder of the Illinois chapter of the Green School Network and students visit other schools to talk about environmental issues.
Principal Brian Greene said the school’s mission transcends the subject of science.
“We’re teaching students what it means to be global citizens of their environment,” he said.
But while charter schools have raised the bar in public education in Illinois and across the country, charter school organizers still face an uphill battle.
“Most local school boards don’t want to approve charters,” said Andrew Broy, president of the Illinois Network of Charter Schools “Very few use chartering as part of their overall school improvement strategy. Chicago is the exception. It has led the way nationally in creating charters in dealing with underperforming schools in troubled neighborhoods — as a way to provide parents of limited means different school options. We’re hopeful we will see more.”
Greene points to a perceived stigma.
“The reason we see fewer charters in the suburbs is the perception that a charter means schools around you must be really bad,” said Greene, who once taught at a charter school in Chicago. “But that’s not always the case.”
The Illinois General Assembly first approved charter schools in 1996 as a means to improving education. But many local school districts refused to fund the schools through per-student tuition. That held true in Grayslake, where both Woodland and Fremont elementary school districts denied the Prairie Crossing charter. Organizers appealed to the Illinois State Board of Education, which accepted the charter and still holds it.
There are currently 51 charter schools across the state, on 116 campuses. Thirty-eight of the schools, on 103 campuses, are in Chicago. Just 13 charter schools, on 13 campuses, operate elsewhere in Illinois, including downstate Decatur, Springfield and East St. Louis. Prairie Crossing and three elementary schools in Rockford comprise the only charters in northern Illinois.
In 2009, the state doubled the number of charters from 60 to 120, with 45 new charter schools allocated to Chicago, five allocated for drop-out recovery, and 15 for the rest of Illinois.
The state budget crisis may also put a crimp in new charter proposals. Transitional impact aid, which helps cover the start-up costs of charters has been cut. And school boards worry a charter will siphon money from existing schools.
The Illinois State Board of Education has granted just three of the estimated 60 appeals filed by spurned charters over the past decade, said Broy, who noted “state school boards tend to not want to pick fights with their districts.”
Broy’s group is helping to craft legislation — a bill is expected to be introduced later this month — that would create an independent authorizer for charter schools. The bill, Broy said, would give charter organizers a real avenue for appeal.
A proposal for a charter school was rejected by the Waukegan School Board in 2008. That effort was led by Lake County United, a grassroots civic group that argued that families in Waukegan — where 62 percent of students meet or exceed state standards — need alternatives to overburdened public schools.
But a charter for Waukegan is not a lost cause, said LCU organizer Matt McDermott. There is still “some conversation” between the Waukegan School District, the city and LCU about a possible middle school charter.
“Charters aren’t the whole answer to public education problems,” McDermott said. “But they can be part of the answer. Hopefully, more places will take a hard look at them.”
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