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Ellen Belcher is the Dayton Daily News opinion pages editor. She writes about state government, education, the environment, higher education and all things Dayton.
Martin Gottlieb is an editorial writer and columnist for the Dayton Daily News opinion pages. He focuses on the political process itself and does such national issues as war, the economy, taxes and Social Security, as well as a hodge-podge of local and state issues.Home > Blogs > A Matter of Opinion > Archives > 2009 > May > 23 > Entry
Terry Ryan: We must shut doors on zombie charter schools
During this fiscal crisis, we’ve heard much about “zombie banks,” institutions that are fundamentally insolvent but stay open because they are propped up by government intervention. But finance isn’t the only field trod by the walking dead.
In Dayton, and indeed across Ohio, we are also witnessing zombie schools. Many are operated by public school systems. To the great embarrassment of those who have supported charter schools (myself included), more than a few also exist within the charter sector. I refer to schools that remain open though they no longer have any real hope of successfully educating children or even paying their bills.
Zombie charters are characterized by low enrollments, persistently weak academic achievement, and sorely troubled finances. Most have shown these failings since birth, which for many occurred during Ohio’s mad rush by irresponsible sponsors in 2003-4 to open as many charter schools as possible, as fast as possible.
Sponsors — of which my organization is one (we sponsor two schools in Dayton and four elsewhere in the state) — are responsible for “licensing” charter schools to operate, holding them accountable for results, and intervening when they struggle.
Regrettably, too many Ohio sponsors have not done their jobs well, and as a result we are stuck with too many zombie charter schools.
The Dayton Daily News has reported on three of them. The New City School, Arise Academy and Nu Bethel Center of Excellence all display zombie-like symptoms. All were launched in 2003-4. All have enrollments under 150 students (two are actually below 100), and all have struggled academically and financially.
One of these schools was rated F by the state and the other two have too few students to even receive academic ratings.
Like zombie banks, zombie schools hurt people and threaten community well-being. They hurt children attending them because they are ill-equipped and ill-prepared to educate these youngsters. They hurt employees by shorting their pay or not meeting their fundamental commitments for things like health insurance.
They hurt charter supporters who find themselves associated with dysfunctional schools and irresponsible sponsors. And they hurt communities by violating the core obligation of a society’s adults to do right by its children.
Closing a charter school is hard and painful work. Last year, the Fordham Foundation worked closely with the leadership of two Dayton charter schools to help close their doors after more than eight years of serving families and children. At both the Omega School of Excellence and East End Community School, responsible adults struggled with the difficult decision to close their doors because they cared deeply about these schools and the children in them.
But the schools ultimately were shuttered — Omega closed and East End merged with the Dayton Public Schools — because, in the end, everyone agreed that this was preferable to letting them continue in a way that might embarrass their supporters or hurt the children and families that depended on them.
Of course, we’d rather open schools and see them thrive than watch them falter — despite valiant efforts to turn them around — and then close. But sometimes the responsible move is to shut them down while assisting families in finding acceptable alternatives. In Dayton and across Ohio, those sponsoring and operating zombie charters need to do what’s right and bury the walking dead. If they refuse or fail to do this, state authorities must crack down on them.
Charter supporters — lawmakers, advocates and operators — should not just demand protection, fair treatment and equitable funding of decent charter schools (as they did recently at a rally in Columbus), but also push hard for the closure — in a fair and transparent way — of zombie schools that hurt children and wound the charter movement.
Those working on the state’s two-year budget should pursue a “tough love” approach to charter schools. This approach is just as right for schools as it is for child rearing. Love means giving them the freedom and resources they need to be successful. Tough means holding them accountable and coming down hard on those that fail or are irresponsible.
That, by the way, is also the way to treat district schools, too.
Let’s purge the zombie schools among us.
Terry Ryan is vice president for Ohio programs and policy at the Thomas B. Fordham Institute.
Permalink | Comments (13) | Post your comment | Categories: City of Dayton, Education, Guest Columns
Comments
By Davidss2
May 23, 2009 8:04 AM | Link to this
Whoa Nellie. These are the folks who ridiculed the public schools because the charter school idea would work SO MUCH BETTER. Now they are saying, “Well, maybe it doesn’t work wonders. Just certain charters do.”========How about we quit wasting our public money for these private interest businesses and political or religious foundations play with it. Let’s close all the charters and let the public schools do their work. These folks are trying to justify stealing more money from the public school system. We’ve watched the money waste, fraud, theft, poor teachers, bad administrators from Cincinnati charters to Dayton. It’s time to stop the WASTE just to help a group of anti-public school zealots test their ideas. If their ideas worked, they’d open their own private schools WITHOUT public money, and show us all how it’s done. ————Otherwise the charters need to be closed down and cut off the public dole. The ones left need to survive with the SAME RULES the public schools have, and that includes proper Achievement Testing under outside proctors and test handling to avoid the urge of the self-righteous to doctor the tests—remember the Dayton charter where the principal appears to have given copies of the test, probably from another school who received theirs on an earlier schedule, to the students “for practice.” She lost her license.By dan
May 23, 2009 8:32 AM | Link to this
alot of the teachers in the dayton public schools cant even speak proper english and were given the job because of quotas and affermative action!!! when your kids get home you have to retrain them to speak proper!!! what a joke!! no ing on the end of words and dis for this dat for that and yet they are hired to do something they cant even do !!!By The Echo of Moe
May 23, 2009 9:53 AM | Link to this
dans right. kids come home today speaking like they learnt english from watching mtv. Im sooooo glad I got my English degree so I can communicate rightly.By What?
May 23, 2009 10:33 AM | Link to this
Dan, I found at least 14 grammatical, mechanical, spelling and usage errors in your post. Also, this article is about charter schools being held accountable which has nothing to do with English teachers in DPS. Let’s try to stay on topic.By Joe Lacey
May 23, 2009 10:54 AM | Link to this
When Mr. Ryan says that the problem with bad charter schools is that they might “hurt charter supporters who find themselves associated with dysfunctional schools and irresponsible sponsors” or they “might embarrass their supporters”, one wonders about who he is concerned with.By Betsy
May 23, 2009 12:20 PM | Link to this
I was worried for a minute that there was a school for zombies in Dayton.By SpitBaby
May 23, 2009 2:16 PM | Link to this
Teen fights Zombies. “Super Black Death Cloud” check out SpitBaby Records on Myspace.By JB
May 23, 2009 2:49 PM | Link to this
Another great amendment that I believe we voted on-and fol.ks wonder why there is an electoral collegeBy charles simms
May 23, 2009 4:17 PM | Link to this
The new STEM School that wil start this fall is a charter school with no history or background of success. In short, it is unproven. Kids in a good suburban private or public school will be asked to give up so much to be a part of the STEM “educational experiment”. The bios on the principal and teachers appear good, but not exceptional. What I want to know is how much financing is behind this experiment? And will it last? Are the kids who enroll from suburban schools like Centerville and Oakwood giving up more than the new STEM school would every hope to priovide? No safe campus for high schoolers, no arts, no music, no athletic program. Wil there be enough discipline? In 20 to 30 years we may know the answer. In the meantime, we are gambling with our kids lives and their futures. That troubles me a lot. This idea of educational dversity is great, but why are OHIO tax payers asked to fund yet another charter school in the Dayton area? So far the charter shcools in our region have had a so-so report card. See the opinion piece by Terry Ryan, the Fordham Foundation, in Sat. DDN May 23rd. Ryan points out once a charter school starts up, it is very hard to close it down. Bright students have a wonderful group of suburban schools both private and public in ouyr Miami Valley region wher kids can they can grow and learn and prepare for college. Charter schools are meant to be an answer to the poor quality DPS, but so far they have not done a good job here in Dayton, at least taken secondary education to a higher level with yet another cxharter school like STEM. STEM offers great job opportunities for teachers. Not sure the kids are being given a snow job. CharlesBy Rick
May 24, 2009 11:42 AM | Link to this
When the public schools had a monopoly, as in Dayton, they were unconcerned with parents or students or achievement. Oh, they talked the talk. But the DPS, was, and is,extremely lax on discipline, tolerated discrimination and harassment of white students, and were interested in having a lot of high-paid administrators. I know that one of Sate Representative Corbin’s complaint is that janitors in the Cleveland Public Schools earned up to $80,000 per year. Mr. Simms, any new school, public or private will have an unproven track record. I doubt you would have the same comment about a new government school.By William Peterson
May 25, 2009 8:42 PM | Link to this
We have a real opportunity to unite charter and public schools in Datyon. DPS has the infastructure and the resources to serve as the educational provider in the Dayton area. When I started a group of community schools in Dayton, I wanted to be a part of the district. Unfortunately, the politics of the day weren’t condusive to such a partership. Things have changed. Under the leadership of Dr. Stanic, there is a real opportunity for both charters and traditional public schools to come together. The benefits for charter schools is the back office support of the district and the existing educational infastructure, (i.e. special ed, transprotation, professional development, grant writing, etc) From personal experience, charter school operators start off with noble intentions but are often side-tracked and ill-equipped to handle the political and budget stresses of the job.By William Peterson pt2
May 25, 2009 9:12 PM | Link to this
We run a slippery slope when we begin to categorize schools as “Zombies” without offering them the proper supports that are needed to effectively run a school. In Terry’s op ed story, he used the term “Zombie”. “Zombie” means the walking dead. I think the parents, students and board members of ARISE! Academy would take excpetion to being labeled as “Zombies” Shane Floyd is doing a masterful job at running ARISE. However, it is almost impossible to juggle the business, financial, parental, academic, community and political demands of the school without some aspect of school operations suffering. When Shane and I founded ARISE! Acaemy back in 2003, we envisioned a school that would target kids who had dropped out and who had otherwise been disenfranchised. In short, ARISE, was started to give at-risk urban kids a 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th chance, if needed. So it is no wonder that ARISE is in academic emergency. ARISE is not alone in its rating of academic emergency. There are a handfull of charter schools in the Dayton area that serve the same population—>Mound Street Academies and Isus, to name two. If these schools are “Zombie” schools that need to be shut down, where will these kids go? I would respectfully disagree with Terry’s labeling of ARISE! and other drop out recovery schools who are in academic emergency as “Zombies”. In fact, they are quite the opposite—-they give life to students who have been left for dead. Instead of demonizing these drop-out recovery schools, we need to embrace and support them. In the case of ARISE, the possiblity of being a district supported school may be a real option for them. Shane and I have talked about this recently and we both agree that there is a real opportunity to turn the corner and partner for the benefit of our most at-risk population. At the end of the day, we all want the same thing— to give our children a fighting chance by providing them with a quality education. We can do it.By concerned citizen and mother
July 10, 2009 12:48 PM | Link to this
Listen William. Arise academy needs to be closed down. Not because there is no need to service “drop out” students; but simply because the leaders at the school, whether it is the board, the “CEO”,Director of Business Operations, the Principal, or a combination of them all, are INCOMPETENT. There is no way in the world we as tax payers should continue to allow them to “practice” education on our children with OUR money! The $125,000 salary that Floyd rakes in is rediculous! Is he even licensed to run a school in Ohio? How much does the superindendent of Dayton Public Schools make? How many schools is HE over and how many students is he responsible for? Is he making as much as Floyd?! Let stop playing and really consider the lives of our children!!!!