(C) Daily Montanan This story was originally published by Daily Montanan and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Montana Board of Public Ed takes up new charter schools, including one with for-profit company – Daily Montanan [1] ['Keila Szpaller', 'More From Author', '- January'] Date: 2024-01-22 A controversial online charter school that would be run by a for-profit company will take another shot at approval from the Montana Board of Public Education after a superintendent withdrew its application Friday. Last year, the Montana Legislature approved a couple of bills that opened the door to more charter schools, and at its meeting last week, the Board of Public Education considered new proposals for public school charters. Board member Jane Lee Hamman said the board was expecting five applications at the most, but received 26. “We celebrated the educators who cared enough to invest in recommending so many different ways of providing public education in Montana,” Hamman said. But the Park City Montana Connections Academy raised more concern than celebration from many members of the public and board members. It received five positive comments plus four letters of support including ones from outside Montana — and 32 negative public comments, according to a report to the board. Thursday, Hamman and other board members wondered if the Park City application was more appropriate through a “school choice” commission — approved by the 2023 Montana Legislature but under temporary injunction by the court — than as a public school charter. One day later, the board announced Park City Superintendent Dan Grabowska had withdrawn the application, but Board Chairperson Tim Tharp said the board looked forward to a resubmission in June. The Park City school drew praise from Republican legislators. In a letter of support, state Sen. Forrest Mandeville and 14 other Republicans said the intent of a couple of education bills in 2023 was to foster “real innovation” in the classroom. “To that end, we are supportive of the creation of a statewide online charter school as submitted by the Park City School District and partnered with a 20-year expert in online learning,” said the letter. But the proposal drew the most opposition last week of all the applications still on the table — and one member of the public said it was the only application that raised alarm. In comments submitted to the board, Montanans criticized the online school’s plan to work with a for-profit company. As proposed, Park City would enter into a partnership with Pearson, a global for-profit company that describes itself as creating “vibrant and enriching learning experiences designed for real-life impact.” “I urge you to recognize the difference between (a) good charter school and an out-of-state entity trying to profit off hard-earned Montana tax dollars,” wrote Dana West. “MT Connections Academy is a farce and is not connected to Park City schools in any true sense. Don’t allow well-intentioned legislation to backfire on us.” After the meeting, Jenny Murnane-Butcher, with Montanans Organized For Education, or MOFE, said other for-profit companies have tried to work through small school districts in other states to create online, for-profit charters. The money from the public schools follows the students. “If they reapply and the board approves it, I really think it is going to open up other for-profit companies to make a buck in Montana,” Murnane-Butcher said. Friday, the board approved 19 different charter schools proposed to operate through their respective public school districts. The motion carried on a unanimous yes vote with no audible opposition. The new proposals come out of a push from Republicans for different education options in Montana. The schools’ names reflect a variety of focuses, including a multilingual school, a polytech, and a Montessori. In the most recent legislative session, lawmakers approved a couple of different bills that opened the door to more charter schools, but the bills offer competing visions of how they should be run. One, House Bill 562, the “School Choice” Act, is under a temporary injunction because a judge said it appears to unconstitutionally take powers away from the Board of Public Education, which oversees schools. A separate bill, House Bill 549, also opens the door to greater flexibility for charter schools. However, it does so within the public school system; it allows trustees to first choose to open a proposed school or to opt out. This is the legislation that prompted the 26 new proposals to the Board of Public Education. Board members reviewed and ranked the proposals on a variety of criteria, including innovation; community need and support; high performance; the applicant’s ability to operate a successful school; and governance consistent with a public charter. The charters the board approved will operate in districts across Montana, including two others that will be online. Those applicants said they would focus on students from their own areas, but board members said online charters in general still require more legal clarity. During public comment Friday, Park City Superintendent Dan Grabowska praised the board’s work on the charter schools, and he offered information about his district’s proposal after having withdrawn it. First, he said, the students don’t need to pay extra to attend. Secondly, he said the district plans to work with Pearson, the private company, because it learned during the COVID-19 years the district has limitations when it comes to taking education online. “But at the same time, we found that there were a lot of students who liked online, that learn better that way,” Grabowska said. So when the opportunity for a charter arose, he said, it made sense for Park City to partner with Connections Academy, through Pearson. Grabowska also said the proposal offers students more choice, one point of the education legislation last session. As indicated by its title, Park City Montana Connections Academy, the school would recruit students from across the state. For-profit operators such as Pearson have drawn criticism that they “aggressively” try to recruit students and families according to the Washington Post. But Grabowska said the students don’t leave home. “We’re not taking kids from communities,” Grabowska said. “The kids get to stay in a community. They get to participate in the communities. They just get educated by a different system.” Board member Susie Hedalen, running as a Republican for superintendent of the Office of Public Instruction, spoke in favor of Park City. She said like other districts, Park City would give priority to local students. Hedalen said she’s been a superintendent in a rural district that hasn’t always had the capacity to operate an online program, but also had students who needed it. She sees Park City as an opportunity for those students and ones in other rural areas. “We had nothing to offer them,” Hedalen said. Superintendent Matt Davis of Big Horn County School District in Wyoming was among those who submitted a letter of support to the board for Park City. He said a contract renewal with Pearson is underway in Wyoming with high satisfaction from parents. “While virtual education is not the answer for all students, for those who choose to utilize the virtual option, it is a tremendous benefit,” Davis said in his letter. But at the meeting, concerns that arose include whether a small school board in Park City should be overseeing students from across the state and whether the plan to cast a net for students statewide is aligned with the intent of the legislation. After the meeting, Murnane-Butcher, with MOFE, questioned whether the bill intended for public funding to be directed to an “education management organization” such as Pearson. Those organizations aim to profit from students. “They are blatantly for profit,” Murnane-Butcher said. “We don’t see that as being the intention of the bill.” She said the language of the bill also requires the Board of Public Education to evaluate the cost of a charter to taxpayers. The bill’s language says: “The board shall…weigh heavily the evidence of community support, the projected student enrollment, and the input received under subsection (6)(c) and only approve charters whose promise of improved educational outcomes outweighs potential increased costs to state and local taxpayers.” Research by the Network for Public Education, which argues for-profit entities use online charters to “prey on the most vulnerable students,” indicates learning outcomes are poor compared to charters run by districts. The Network has a mission to strengthen public schools. An analysis of online schools nationwide in reading and math found 37.8% of district-run online schools had acceptable proficiency compared to just 20% of privately-run online charters, according to the Network. Grabowska couldn’t be reached by voicemail Monday to answer questions about how Park City might revise its proposal to decrease opposition to operating as a public charter — from board members and members of the public — ahead of the June meeting. Board members suggested the Park City application might be more aligned with the Community Choice Schools Commission. However, related litigation is pending, and in the meantime, those schools can’t open. The court order granting a temporary injunction against parts of HB 562 allowed the “choice schools” commission to continue its preparation work, and it meets again Tuesday. [END] --- [1] Url: https://dailymontanan.com/2024/01/22/montana-board-of-public-ed-takes-up-new-charter-schools-including-one-with-for-profit-company/ Published and (C) by Daily Montanan Content appears here under this condition or license: Creative Commons CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/montanan/