Competing for students?
What a novel idea.
Certainly, it was somewhat heartening to see Denver Public Schools Superintendent Michael Bennet mention the need to market schools to parents.
It’s becoming increasingly difficult to ignore the number of parents clamoring to enroll their kids in charter schools – many signing up for lotteries, practically begging to get in.
Now, imagine where DPS would be if we had a school voucher system.
Chris Gibbons is head of school at the West Denver Preparatory Charter School, which will open in August. Gibbons has an incentive to succeed.
“We were focused on being a community school and working in our neighborhood, in the neighborhood immediately surrounding our school,” Gibbons explains. “We did a door-to-door campaign. We probably met with 500 families. We probably left materials for another 200 and direct mail to another 300 parents.”
A charter like West Denver Prep will spend approximately the same amount per student as DPS, yet it will feature smaller classes and more flexibility.
Obviously, Gibbons possesses a luxury DPS administrators can only dream of: agility and independence. The ability to institute change without negotiating the nine circles of hell – commonly known as the education bureaucracy.
Gibbons isn’t even pleading for more tax dollars. In fact, he’s turning students away. West Denver Prep saw about 150 applicants (it will feature only sixth grade this year) and held a random lottery drawing for only 100 students.
On the whole, Denver public schools have lost 8,000 students the past four years.
Well, they haven’t exactly lost them. Let’s face it, the reason Denver charter schools now have 7,100 kids enrolled is that there’s room for only 7,100 kids.
Denver certainly isn’t unique. The flight from public schools is a nationwide trend. In the Washington, D.C., school district, 10,000 students, or about 25 percent, have migrated to charter schools in the past five years, according to The Washington Post.
An additional 1,700 low-income, predominantly minority kids have taken advantage of a flourishing voucher system – a program that teachers unions have denied poor parents in Denver.
In the Minneapolis area, public school district enrollment is projected to be down 30 percent, according to the Minneapolis Star Tribune, as students escape sub-par traditional public schools.
In St. Louis, there was an exodus of about 4,000 students to charter schools the past five years. This migration, says The Associated Press, will cost the city’s public schools more than $100 million.
This identical story is repeating itself in many more cities across the nation, portending bad news for DPS.
“Our school is a college-prep focus; that’s the No. 1 goal – to prepare middle school kids to get on to college prep,” Gibbons explains. “We have a longer school day. We have a slightly longer year. Relatively strict discipline policy with a uniform. The main thing we’re offering to parents is a smaller school and smaller classes, relatively speaking.”
Of course, there are plenty of superior public schools in Denver, and any student can apply to get into them. But they are usually in affluent neighborhoods and they have to take neighborhood kids first. It’s the poor who are often left behind, unless the status quo is confronted.
“It’s good to challenge all schools to do a better job educating urban kids. Particularly given the state of urban education across the country right now,” Gibbons contends.
Now, not all charter schools work out. But when they fail, the market shuts them down. Parents look elsewhere.
Public schools, however, go back to the well – namely taxpayers.
Over and over and over …
Hopefully, at some point, parents will ask: “Hey, hold on a second. Look at charters. Look at private schools. What are we getting for our money?”
Just like a responsible consumer.
David Harsanyi’s column appears Monday and Thursday. He can be reached at 303-820-1255 or dharsanyi@denverpost.com.
