SACRAMENTO, CA -- When recently asked about charter schools, Gov. Gray Davis replied: "I want to make sure that charter schools have every opportunity to succeed. . . . Free them from all the bureaucratic rules and regulations, and see if they can produce what counts--which are higher test scores." Despite his supportive rhetoric, however, Davis is pushing Senate Bill SB434, a measure that would not only tie up charter schools with new red tape, but would actually close down many charters.

To make matters worse, Davis is stabbing charters in the back with the active cooperation of Gary Hart, Davis’s secretary for education and author of the 1992 legislation creating charter schools. The Davis-Hart-backed SB 434, which has passed both Houses of the Legislature, specifically targets charter schools that rely on home study and distance learning. Currently, some 22,000 charter students--one-third of the entire state charter-school population--use home-study and distance-learning instruction which is provided over Internet connections, phone or correspondence, but always with teacher oversight. Since charter schools are given no building funds, these methods provide instruction at a fraction of the cost.

Under SB 434, charter schools would be prohibited from offering courses required for high school graduation exclusively through home study and distance learning. This would eliminate many charter schools altogether. Ironically, in other education settings, the state is promoting high-tech distance learning.

One legislative analysis criticized SB 434 for ending distance learning for charters at the same time the state is establishing distance-learning-based virtual universities. Jayna Gaskell, head of the Lake Tahoe-area Prosser Creek Charter School, notes that, "SB 434 takes charter schools and places them in the same exact box as traditional schools." The measure’s other restrictions are similarly onerous.

Students who live in counties not contiguous with the county in which the charter school is based will not be allowed to use home study and distance learning to attend the charter. This restriction will knock out many northern California home-study/distance-learning charters. The bill also requires charters to offer the same number of instructional minutes as regular public schools, regardless of how well charter students are currently performing. Ms. Gaskell rightly observes that charters are "measured by students’ educational performance, not how long they sit in a classroom."

Finally, it will be more difficult for home-study/distance-learning charter schools to offer laptop computers and other necessary resources to their students. Depending on future bureaucratic interpretation, they may not be able to offer such items unless they are offered to regular public-school students.

Davis and Hart defend their support of SB434, which was passed without debate, with generic appeals for greater accountability. But charter schools already must meet the performance goals set in their mission statements or face closure. Regular public schools are not subject to such "death penalty" accountability. The sensible course would be to make the rest of the state’s schools more like charter schools, not the reverse.

Davis, who is a Vietnam vet, no doubt remembers the Vietnam-War-era military philosophy: "We must destroy a village in order to save it." The governor and his secretary of education are employing the same philosophy against charter schools.

-- Lance T. Izumi