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Complaints About Charters

Ohanian Comment: Read the rules charters are now imposing. Amazing as well as atrocious.

A boy gets sent home from a charter school because his shirt is not tucked in. A girl gets the boot because her hair is colored.

What's a parent to do?

As complaints and concerns mount at some of Philadelphia's 48 charter schools, the school district is considering the creation of an independent review board to hear such complaints.

"It is a proposal that is very seriously under consideration here at the district," spokeswoman Amy Guerin said yesterday.

"We like the concept of it, and right now we are exploring how it would potentially work - or if it can work."

Guerin said it is not clear yet if state law gives the district the latitude to create such a board to interact with charters, which are publicly funded but run independently of the district.

A call to the state Department of Education yesterday was not returned.

The debate over what charter officials can and cannot do was ignited last month when dozens of parent complaints about the Multi-Cultural Academy Charter School led the school district to call that charter on the carpet.

The School Reform Commission gave the charter until April 1 to correct or explain the rationale for a number of practices and policies that possibly violate student civil rights. They included charging students to take makeup tests, requiring parents to have e-mail accounts and threatening with "grave consequences" parents who complain about the charter to the school district.

Vuong G. Thuy, headmaster of Multi-Cultural, yesterday said he plans to comply with the commission's request for information and has no problem with the creation of a review board, under certain circumstances.

"As long as they honor our independence, I don't have any problem with that. They have no right to interfere with our operations," said Thuy, who founded the North Philadelphia high school six years ago and who steadfastly denies violating anyone's civil rights.

"If we violate the law, we are responsible for that," Thuy said, "but they have to respect our independence."

A likely case that a review board would hear is one that happened yesterday at Multi-Cultural.

Several parents said that as many as 10 students had been sent home for not having a form signed by a parent. Thuy confirmed that students had been sent home, just as the form said they would be without a parent's signature. But only three children were sent home, and they came back with signed forms, another Multi-Cultural official said.

The Rev. Ethan D. Thornton, the district's parent liaison for charter schools, proposed the need for the creation of a review board to district officials two years ago, and did so again last month.

"Like public schools, if it's broken, fix it. I think charter schools are wonderful, and they are a vehicle that will take our kids to another level," he said yesterday. "But let's fix some things before they get out of hand."

Rosalie Cooper withdrew her daughter from Multi-Cultural last June, believing Thuy had been habitually unfair to the child. She, too, supports the creation of a review board.

"We need a board that will be fair to the parents, students and the principal," she said


— Mensah M. Dean
Schools mulling board to review beefs on charters
Philadelphia Daily News
2004-03-05
http://www.philly.com/mld/dailynews/news/local/8111511.htm

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