Charter gets OK to open 3 Austin campuses
Valor plans the first for 2018-19, drawing pupils from city school district.
The State Board of Education on Friday gave a charter school permission to open three new campuses in Austin, likely pulling students from the Austin school district, which for years endured declining enrollment.
The state panel last approved a new charter school for Austin in 2014, although existing charter schools — which are privately run public schools — have opened new campuses in the city since then.
Officials with Valor Public Schools hope to open their first campus in the 2018-19 school year with at least 500 students, and then add two more campuses by 2023-24 that can cumulatively enroll up to 4,200 students. The school aims to combine a liberal arts education with instruction in science, technology, engineering and math.
“Those elements are the things that parents have consistently pointed to as being most appealing,” said Superintendent Steve Gordon, who used to work for Great Hearts Academies, which
has campuses in Arizona and Texas, including in San Antonio.
Ruben Cortez, D-Brownsville, was the only education board member to oppose Valor’s charter.
The day before, Cortez grilled Valor officials on whether the Austin schools will differ from Great Hearts charter school, which in Arizona uses the Common Core curriculum. He said he learned that a San Antonio campus of Great Hearts was at one point using supplemental Common Core learning material.
“If you’ve ever been in our board room, you’ll hear that’s a no-no,” Cortez said.
Gordon said Valor’s curriculum will follow Texas standards.
The board also approved four other new charter operators to open campuses in Texas.
The growth of new charter operators has slowed in the past five years because the Texas Education Agency has implemented a more rigorous vetting process, which includes ensuring that charter operators can properly finance their schools and have curriculum plans. Of 34 charter applicants in the recent cycle, five were approved by the State Board of Education.
But once new charter operators get the OK from the state, it becomes easier to add campuses.
The number of charter school campuses grew to 629 in 2016 (49 of them in Austin), up 36 percent from 2010, according to the Texas Charter Schools Association. About 250,000 of the state’s 5.3 million students attend charter schools, but thousands more are on waiting lists.
“There was a time in the history of charter schooling in Texas when the initial vetting was way too lax, and some charters were granted that probably never should’ve been granted,” said David Dunn, head of the Texas Charter Schools Association.
“I think we’ve gone into a period where the vetting process is just overly cumbersome.”
The relationship between charter schools and traditional public schools is marked by competition for students and for state funding.
Traditional public schools and their advocates say charter schools shouldn’t receive the same kind of state funding because traditional public schools are held to higher standards.
Advocates like Dunn have said charter schools are rated under the same accountability system as traditional public schools.
Charter schools have attracted a chunk of students from the Austin school district, which has lost about 4,000 students over the last five years.
The district had 83,000 students in the 2016-17 school year and is expected to lose an additional 1,000 students through 2020-21, according to district documents. Although most students who leave the school district do so because their families can’t afford to live in the city, about 20 percent leave to go to charter schools.
About 18,000 students attend Austin charter schools, according to the charter schools association.
To plug the draining of students, the Austin school district has launched a robust marketing campaign, including radio and TV ads and billboards. “We offer programs recognized nationwide and believe there is a program for every family,” said Edmund Oropez, Austin school district’s chief officer of teaching and learning. “We recognize that there’s competition while understanding that affordability plays a larger role regarding enrollment loss than charter school options.”
Gordon said Valor officials would like to open campuses in the 78753 and 78758 ZIP codes in North Austin and the 78745 and 78748 ZIP codes in South Austin because nearby public schools don’t offer the hybrid classical and contemporary education that Valor will.
Families of 1,800 students have expressed interest in the school, he said.
Gordon said students are expected to learn the Socratic method and fine arts and to take on community service projects, and all campuses will have a garden that students will manage.
Three State Board of Education members this week also questioned how Valor was going to ensure that low-income students have spots in the school.
Gordon said the goal is to enroll students who reflect the demographics of the neighborhood, which are about half economically disadvantaged.