Learning Curve: Winning the lottery

Many parents in her community share her excitement at the prospect of a boutique alternative to the area’s large public schools. Approved by a new state commission two months ago, the Museum School of Avondale Estates will open in August with 140 students and a curriculum built on hands-on learning and museum field trips. It’s open to DeKalb students zoned for Avondale and Midway elementary schools.

The yearning of parents for smaller, neighborhood schools with innovative curriculums is fueling the charter school movement in Georgia, a movement that has become more adversarial since the state set up a commission to overrule local school boards and approve charter schools.

Charter schools are publicly funded schools which, in exchange for expanded accountability, operate with more freedom and far fewer regulations. Georgia only has 113 charter schools, a by-product of former state laws that made school boards the gatekeepers.

Not surprisingly, some school boards responded with overt hostility to charters, which led to the current law enabling charter applicants to pitch their case to an appointed state commission.

No one gives up power or money without a fight, and that’s why several systems, including DeKalb, have filed a lawsuit in rebellion against what they consider the illegal overreach of the state.

In explaining its decision to join the lawsuit, the DeKalb school board released a statement noting that it has not been resistant to charter schools. “What the state has done with the state Charter Schools Commission Act is not only unconstitutional and inequitable, but it threatens the integrity of the existing statewide system for funding public education,” said the board.

The tensions have escalated in the current budget crunch as desperate systems are closing schools at the same time that the Charter Schools Commission is approving them.

For example, while the Museum School was picking names out of a bag for its 140 slots, DeKalb Superintendent Crawford Lewis was a few miles away announcing plans to close four schools with enrollments of less than 300 students.

Andrew Broy, who oversees charter schools for the state Department of Education, does not believe charter schools are a threat to public schools. In fact, he thinks they are an asset because they bring families back to the public education fold.

“To get more students back in public education is a net benefit,’ he said.

And as the Museum School lottery attests, they are coming back. With videotape running and a lawyer on hand to certify the results, the lottery was as anticipated as a Powerball drawing by the 40 parents in the room.

Indeed, for the parents whose children won seats, the prize probably felt like a million dollars.

Many parents in Avondale Estates — an historic, planned community near Decatur — send their children to intown private schools, most of which cost $12,000 a year and up. (That may be why four of the seven founding board members behind the Museum School have twins; they are facing twice the costs.)

While there is a public elementary school within walking distance, Avondale Elementary has its challenges, including an enrollment of 422 students, of whom 90 percent are poor enough to qualify for free and reduced lunches and 17 percent have limited English proficiency. Still, the school has made adequate yearly progress in academic performance and attendance.

But in making its case to the state commission, the Museum School parents wrote, “Student achievement results at the existing public elementary school for our community are unacceptable. For years, concerned families have tried to improve the situation at the public school in our area, and while these efforts did not lead to significant positive changes in student achievement, they did lead to an understanding of the factors that create a high-quality educational experience.

“Now, more than ever, we believe that a school must be strongly tied to its community to be successful, and we have that community support.”