Agenda - 05-06-1997 - 2 - Laserfiche WebLink

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6 student/teacher ratios than the LEA schools that compete with them. They are able to do this by increasing the number of teachers relative to non-instructional staff. It should be no surprise that most private schools operate in this way too. The group of parent activists that I belong to has already forced the CHCCS to direct a larger proportion of their manpower into the class room. During the 1995 school board election we attacked the CHCCS administration-for adding only two instructional staff out of a total head count increase of 17. They got the message and did a much better job in 1996. Once we have a few charter schools in operation, you can be sure that the number of non-instructional staff in the CHCCS will start to fall. The figures for September 1995 and 1996 are based on CHCCS "Opening of School Reports". The numbers for 1997 and 1998 reflect what could happen if charter schools are allowed to succeed in North Carolina: 9/95 9/96 9/97 9/98 Increase in students(ADM) from previous year 251 274 300 325 Additional instructional staff 2 91 100 110 Additional service and administration star 15 47 7 -30 I believe that the Village Charter School and future charter schools will force the CHCCS to add muscle and cut the fat. Successful charter schools set an example by putting children and teachers before administrators or service personnel. I can understand that this makes the education establishment feel threatened. Change is scary. What troubles me is that they should attempt to influence you with mis-information. I therefore respectfWly request that FREE be represented at any meetings you have with the CHCCS administration when charter schools will be discussed. Looking beyond Chapel FEII, charter schools are transforming education elsewhere in the United States and in other countries. For example, since '1991, government schools in the United Kingdom have improved year on year. A comparable improvement in North Carolina would raise us thirty places, to #17 out of 50 states in SAT scores. Charter schools (known as "Grant Maintained Schools" in the UK) were the catalyst for this turnaround, even though they still account for less than 6% of students in the UK (700,000 students in 1996). This rather large scale experiment has shown that a modest investment in charter schools can have a huge effect on government schools as a whole. I expect that North Carolina's charter schools will be even more successful than the British ones because we are learning from their mistakes and because our schools will be smaller and more innovative. The British Education Reform Act of 1988 encouraged the conversion of existing public schools to independent status. Consequently, British charter schools have an average of over 600 students. North Carolina's HB 955 encourages the establishment of new schools with a likely average of under 200 students. This will help our charter schools to be true "Community Schools" with great potential benefits as the following quotations suggest: "The child is not educated to return home and be of use to the place and community; he or she is educated to leave home and earn money in a provisional future that has nothing to do with the place or community. The local schools no longer serve the local community, they serve the government's economy and the economy's government. Unlike the local community, the government and the economy cannot be served with affection, but only with professional zeal or professional boredom. Professionalism means more interest in salary and less interest in what lobbyl.doc page 2 of 3