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Scott Barksdale is head of school at Harpswell Coastal Academy. Heather King is head of school at Maine Arts Academy in Sidney. School leaders from other Maine public charter schools contributed to the writing of this column.
This spring, students rallied to defend Maine’s 10 public charter schools. At the April 7 hearing of the Legislature’s Joint Committee on Education and Cultural Affairs, students who attend Maine’s public charter schools, their families and school staff members spoke out against LD 604.
The bill attempted to treat public charter school students differently from students who attend their local district public schools. Our school communities spoke out against this attempt at increasing inequity in our state’s public education system, and the committee was right in its bipartisan agreement to table the proposals of the legislation for further study.
Along with other charter school leaders, we are writing to increase awareness of how public charter schools work in Maine and of how they benefit students as part of our public education system. It is clear that some have formed opinions about Maine public charters based on a few alarming stories about charter schools in other states.
Maine’s public charters are different:
Our schools were founded by parents and teachers, not charter management organizations from other states. Our schools are all not-for-profit.
Our schools offer free public school options for any resident of Maine with no enrollment criteria other than state residency and available openings. Maine’s charter schools are public schools that serve more than 2,600 students, pre-K-12 from around the state, and they employ more than 300 teachers and support staff.
Our schools are funded by the state of Maine and not by local property taxes.
Our schools support regional opportunities that augment local public schools. Our schools have missions that allow students to pursue their individual interests, academic goals and career aspirations.
Our schools are held to a high level of accountability by the Maine Department of Education and the Maine Charter School Commission.
Funding for students who attend public charter schools is — and should remain — equal to the funding of their local public school peers. Public charters are not funded before or in place of local public schools; we are all part of one public education system in Maine.
Public charter schools add value to the tax dollars spent on education in Maine. For example, a public charter school in Maine will draw students from as few as 15 towns and as many as 80 towns. Public charter schools are regional schools with missions focused around topics like ecology, engineering, social change, hands-on learning and the arts. A single town or RSU likely doesn’t have dollars to devote to this kind of specialized programming. So charter schools offer families a regional public school option with alternatives to meet many learning interests and needs.
Like all schools, public charters need stability and consistency. Annual attacks from a small group of anti-charter legislators have politicized public charters and have threatened to reduce funding. This ongoing politicization hurts our ability to focus on the public school students we serve every day; it hurts Maine’s public education system.
Last session, it was LD 307 and LD 513. This year, it is LD 604. What will it be next year?
We implore our legislators in Augusta to please stop introducing anti-charter bills that would hurt our public school system. We ask them to please start supporting the work that public charters and local public schools can do together as a system to solve our most pressing education problems in Maine. We ask that legislators drop the anti-charter agendas that hurt our 2,600 public charter school students. Our students and their families deserve that.
Our public charter schools are part of Maine’s publicly funded education system, and they support overall academic engagement, social and emotional development and higher graduation rates for all Maine students. Public charters in Maine are one part of the solution to our most pressing problems as we emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond. It is time to stop the political attacks and start working together for Maine’s students.