Can Schools Exist Without Students?

Bad schools exist in every large school system. Throughout the past decades, educators and policy-makers have spent countless hours and millions (billions?) of dollars trying to make those schools better. They have tried new curriculums, mentoring programs, technological advances, and much more. However, the Green Dot charter school system in Los Angeles is trying a new approach. Their plan is to pick a low performing school each year and open enough high performing charter schools in the area that the entire incomming class chooses not to attend the failing school. What a brilliant idea. After all, schools can't fail students if there are no students there to fail.

Green Dot is unlike most other charter management organizations in LA or elsewhere. Instead of creating schools with some unique characteristics (like arts, math/science, foreign language) in order to attract a niche constituency, Green Dot tries very hard to emulate the LA public school system. Their moto is to take the same money, same resources, and same students, but produce better results. They hope to show the entire city that good schooling is within reach for every student. No private funding is spent within their schools. All teachers are unionized and paid through a salary schedule similar to that used in the public schools system. Teachers are required to be certified, just like all other public school teachers. Most importantly, Green Dot's student body is made up of more special ed students and those from families with less money and education. And it is working as students starting in Green Dot's schools are almost double as likely as those in district schools to graduate from high school.

So given the choice between sending their children to the failing LA public school system or Green Dot's remarkably successful set of schools, most parents would choose the latter. If Green Dot were successful in this new plan, LA would have to shut down many of those low performing schools and lose all of the revenue that goes with them. It should be noted that Green Dot is a good partner with LA Unified, not an opponent like many charter schools seem to be. Some Green Dot schools have opened on LA Unified's campuses so that they could pay rent and put money into much needed district schools. Green Dot schools often partner with local elementary schools to offer tutoring services. And LA Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa recently hired Green Dot's Chief Academic Officer to work as his Education Reform advisor.

Given Green Dot's model of team work, not to mention the superior education that they give to thousands of LA students, why are they getting confrontational treatment by the LA School Board? Last Thursday the School Board had to vote on approving 8 new Green Dot charter schools (most of them near the failing Locke High School in Watts). By a vote of 3-3, the School Board rejected these petitions, most likely breaking state law since there are very specific criteria on which school boards can reject an application. School board members cited Green Dot's academic record (which in nearly every measurement is far better than LA Unified) and the money that the district would lose if these schools were opened. However, some believe that this vote has more to do with the millions of dollars that the Teachers' Unions have poured into school board campaigns.

Green Dot will appeal this decision and even the school board's own legal counsel agree that they will likely win. School districts must begin to realize that charter schools are not going away and are likely to just keep gaining momentum in the years to come. What's more, if Green Dot's plan to put failing schools out of business works, watch for this same phenomenon to be attempted throughout the country. School districts can choose to either fight the inevitable or they can partner with successful charters in hope that they can work together to improve the education of those students who are currently being failed by the schooling system.