Kentucky needs charter schools in more places than Louisville!

A lot of people understand that Kentucky’s largest city would benefit from more school options for students including charter schools operated independent of the stifling restrictions from bureaucracy and union influences in Louisville.

Now, however, another hot prospect has emerged with a vengeance, and this time it is Lexington – not Louisville – that becomes the newest poster child for the need in Kentucky of charter school legislation.

The Herald-Leader just came alive with an article, “Education commissioner warns of state action if Fayette doesn't support low-achieving schools,” which discusses the deplorable support the Fayette County School District has been providing to some of the very lowest performing schools in the Lexington area. The article links to a really disturbing letter from Education Commissioner Terry Holliday that charges the Fayette County Board of Education with some really significant management shortfalls.

I wonder if the commissioner would like to turn some of those schools that the Fayette County School District doesn’t seem interested in or capable of helping into charter schools. Too bad we don’t have a law right now that would allow him to do that.

Here are just a few examples of the district level management problems that would not exist if we could install a charter school or two in Lexington that would be independent of the district’s failings. These issues are listed in a May 14, 2015 letter from Education Commissioner Terry Holliday to the chair of the Fayette County Board of Education.

• Regarding the district's support of Bryan Station High School, “…few improvements have been made at the district level to support school turnaround and the closing of achievement gaps. The Diagnostic Review of March 2015 identified many of the same concerns that were evident a year earlier.”

• “The District does not have systems/processes that ensure continuous improvement, beginning with a process to communicate a purpose for the district.”

• “The District does not have clearly defined roles and responsibilities of district leaders that allow empowerment to implement programs, processes, etc.”

• “The District does not have evidence of an understanding of the return on investment (time and money) for ensuring student success.”

• “The District does not have a process for monitoring effectiveness of department work, nor effective collaboration within and between departments regarding programs, processes, recommendations, etc.”

In all the letter cites 13 different, serious failings at the district, which is more serious because the district was also audited a year ago and knew these areas needed work. However, instead of moving out to change things, the district recently whined that they didn’t have much money or time to do anything in the troubled schools.

That is an interesting complaint. You see, according to the 2013-14 Kentucky School Report Cards (access here), in Bryan Station High School the district only spends $7,096 per pupil. Meanwhile, the district overall is receiving $11,876 per pupil for every student in Fayette County Schools. That’s a differential of $4,780 the district is holding for its own uses.

To be sure, some of those district expenses include alternative schools, but consider this: I also found out that the selective SCAPA at Bluegrass elementary/middle school in Fayette County gets $11,296 per pupil.

Although it gets somewhat more per pupil than Lexington’s other standard high schools, Bryan Station really might not be getting the resources it needs while a selective school mostly serving Fayette County’s white kids is getting a lot of money.

By the way, Bryan Station High is 39.1 percent black while SCAPA at Bluegrass is only 4.4 percent black. Overall, Fayette County’s 2013-14 Kentucky School Report Card shows the district-wide black enrollment is 22.6 percent black.

There may be good explanations for all of this, but Holliday’s letter seems to indicate the explanations to date are not acceptable and a lot more needs to be done.

Of course, if we could convert Bryan Station to a charter school, maybe we could get more focused management for the school that would not generate things like Holliday’s 13 major examples that the current Fayette County Schools management of low-performing schools seems rather iffy, at best.