Charter School NEWS                  

By PHYLISS BOATWRIGHT , C-T Staff Writer
Much has been said and written about the North Carolina Education Lottery, signed into law Aug. 30 by Gov. Mike Easley, which is to provide funding to public schools.

But little has been said about the fact that House Bill 1023, which directs lottery proceeds toward school construction, excludes 100 of the state’s public schools and their nearly 30,000 students.

Through specific language — or lack thereof — the lottery fails to fund charter schools in the same way it does regular public schools because the 1996 law establishing charter schools says they are not to receive capital funding from the state.

Tom Williams of Acadia NorthStar, LLC in Raleigh provides financial services for Person County’s Bethel Hill Charter School and 59 others across the state. Williams said he believed the Legislature failed to realize that it needed to provide specific language in the lottery bill in order for charter schools to get a share of lottery proceeds.

Lottery funds will be set aside for school construction projects, higher education scholarships and Easley’s More at Four preschool program, according to the bill. Since charter schools by law are obliged to fund their own construction, or capital, projects, they are left out of the lottery mix, since the language of House Bill 1023 does not specifically include them.

Many state legislators may have been unaware that the language of the bill excluded some public school children.

Rep. Winkie Wilkins, D-Person, was one of them.

Wilkins told The Courier-Times he did not realize that charter schools would be left out of the lottery proceeds. He said last week, however, that, if there is support for it, he would introduce a bill to include charter schools, if the current legislation is not amended.

"I at least think it should be debated," Wilkins said, adding that Person County was fortunate to have Bethel Hill, a charter school that has proven quite successful over its five-year history.

Wilkins said he would like to see if "by some method, some portion of the lottery funds are made available to proven charter schools."

He said he had asked the Department of Public Instruction’s research lawyers to look at the language of the lottery bill and the original charter school legislation to see if, as in the case of fines and forfeitures monies, the lottery funds could be directed to all public schools.

When the first charter schools were established in North Carolina, the enabling legislation did not allow them to receive funding from civil fines and forfeitures, as did other public schools.

Fines and forfeitures are collected by local courts and law enforcement agencies and passed on to the local school districts, according to the number of students.

Francine Delaney New School for Children charter school in Asheville sued the state for a share of those funds. Following a favorable finding by the lower courts, the state Supreme Court upheld the decision to allow charter schools to receive the fines and forfeitures funding.

Concerning the recent lottery bill that now excludes charter schools from that pot of funding, Sen. Ellie Kinnaird, D-Orange, who also represents Person County, said she, like Wilkins, was not aware of that fact when the bill passed. She said she would address the issue with her colleagues.

Kinnaird said she was a supporter of charter schools and that she thought the "original legislation made a big mistake" by not allowing them to receive capital funding. "That gives an unfair advantage to regular public schools," she said.

Referencing Bethel Hill Charter, Kinnaird called it "a wonderful school" and said the county was fortunate to have it. She said BHCS was also fortunate in that it was able to use a campus that was no longer used by the Person County Schools system. Many charter schools across the state, she said, were not as fortunate and had to clamor to find a physical plant once they received their charters.

Acadia NorthStar’s Williams said many charter schools that failed did so largely because they could not find adequate buildings and parents tended to pull their children out after a few years of classes in mobile classroom units or church basements.

Kinnaird pledged to work with Wilkins to get the lottery legislation changed or introduce a new bill that would allow charter schools to benefit in the same way as other public schools.

BHCS Principal John Betterton said he was very disappointed by what he perceives as unfair treatment of thousands of children.

"I’ve got 340 public school children here," he said of his school, "and I don’t want them treated any differently than any others. I’m not trying to take anything away from Person County Schools, I just want my children treated fairly."

Betterton said charter schools had already worked to lower class size, which is a big issue in regular public schools. Not giving charters lottery funds for capital improvements, he said, would be "giving the regular public schools the money to do what we’ve already done. But, I can’t do any of the extra things," he said, "because I keep my class size low."

Betterton pointed out that BHCS borrowed $1.2 million to renovate the original campus and build new classrooms. The school now must repay that loan. Each year, he said, the school pays $112,000 in interest alone.

"As a consequence," he said, "I can’t pay my teachers for having a masters degree or being National Board certified. I don’t think that’s fair. If we got the lottery money, I could pay my teachers what they’re worth."

Betterton said he knew going in as a charter school principal that the schools received no capital funding from the state.
"But this [lottery] law was passed in 2005. It should have been passed to help all public schools. We’re compared with regular public schools [in student performance] and if [the state] is going to do that, then make sure the playing field is level. It’s not right now."

Betterton said he had no problems with Person County Schools and felt that "Person County does it right," in making sure that the charter school receives the funding it’s entitled to. But, he added, the lottery funding supposedly will amount to around $80 per child and it should be distributed among all public schools here and statewide.

Betterton said he had contacted legislators and hoped others would do the same.

"I hope we can encourage them to correct this problem," he said about the lottery funding. "If that doesn’t work, I feel sure there will be a lawsuit."

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