There is no joy in closing a school.
Children are upset. Parents are bereft. Teachers feel abandoned. It’s the kind of thing that can tear a hole in a community.
But as difficult as it is, sometimes it’s the right thing to do.
That’s the case with the closing of Amandla Charter Academy in Denver. Suffering from academic problems and troubled finances, Denver’s school board voted Monday to reject its charter application.
The anger expressed at the board meeting was palpable. But eliminating troubled charter schools is necessary to keep the system strong, and ultimately it best serves the children. Their education should be the overriding concern.
To be sure, Amandla, named after the Zulu word for strength, had a laudable aim: to infuse education with an African-American focus.
And as the school’s fate hung in the balance during the past year, several students have related compelling anecdotes about how the school’s sense of community encouraged them to attend classes.
There is a lot to be said about creating an engaging school atmosphere. However, the school’s other problems ultimately outweighed its benefits.
To be fair, Amandla started with great burdens. It was the reincarnation of Challenges, Choices & Images charter school, a school wracked by controversy.
CCI, as it was called, was the lowest-ranked school on Denver’s accountability scorecard. Several current and former CCI school employees had criminal records, including an assistant principal who had been convicted of possessing a crack pipe.
CCI also had serious financial problems, centering on allegations that public money was mixed into a private enterprise. CCI was dissolved last year, and Amandla was created, with new leadership, to take its place.
However, the school started off $1.2 million in debt, and by spring, half the teaching staff was laid off. Furthermore, test scores showed only a quarter of its third-graders were reading at grade level.
It was against this backdrop that DPS board members rejected the K-12 school’s charter application.
Amandla’s leadership can appeal the decision to the state school board. If that happens, we hope the panel fairly evaluates the circumstances. At this juncture, however, it seems evident the school ought to be closed.
Protecting flawed institutions weakens the entire system. This is particularly true for charters, which have been controversial in some quarters since their inception in 1993, in part because of fears that lack of central control would lead to abuses. We’ve supported the concept of charters — some of Denver’s finest schools are charters — but clearly not all of them work as intended.
We were glad to see DPS take the dispute over Amandla head-on and vote to effectively close down the school. As difficult as the decision must have been, it’s the right call for the students involved and the system as a whole.
