A Piccolo Perspective
It Is Time -
To Address Sponsorship Reform in a Comprehensive and Systemic Way.
To Address Sponsorship Reform in a Comprehensive and Systemic Way.
This is the first of a series of articles, entitled "It Is Time," that will address issues whose time has come for action and for steps to address those issues.
In the last few weeks there have been statements and other indications that a group of sponsors intends to introduce its own legislation to raise the fee that schools pay for sponsorship if there is not agreement within the charter school community on the issue of sponsor fees.
Over the last several years there have been numerous efforts to address and develop a package on a wide variety of issues relative to sponsorship of schools. Earlier this year we were zeroing in on a comprehensive agreement on the various issues related to sponsorship after months of discussions and meetings. Regretfully, the process of coming to final agreement was diverted by the need to shift attention and energy to defeating the proposed cap on charter schools.
When that shift in attention occurred there were three basic issues that were left on the table to be resolved:
- First, an accountability process for sponsors,
- Second, a means to hold a school harmless if it was found that the sponsor was woefully lacking in capacity or performance, and
- Third, the amount of the sponsorship fee schools would pay - There was agreement on two important aspects of this issue: an agreement on the idea that sponsors could charge the initial higher fee rate for up to five years instead of the current three; and changing the formula from a specific dollar amount in the law to a percentage amount based on per pupil general revenue aid.
Over the last two years the MACS Public Policy Committee and others have spent countless hours studying and discussing the various issues regarding sponsorship and last year the membership of the Association ratified a comprehensive approach on addressing the reform of sponsorship.
I want to again outline the basic principles of that comprehensive policy:
First, it has been and continues to be the belief and position of the Association that the issues relative to sponsorship need to be addressed in a comprehensive manner - trying to change one element without addressing the full range of issues will not solve or change anything.
(For example, just raising the sponsorship fee without clarifying the role and responsibilities of sponsors will not fix the sponsorship system. It may provide some sponsors with more money, but it will not raise the ability of sponsors or change the level of understanding or performance of sponsors. One cannot argue that more funding is going to address all the issues around sponsorship - anymore than one can argue that more money is going to fix the traditional school districts).
The 10 Components of a Comprehensive Policy on Sponsorship
1. Clarification of the role and responsibilities of sponsors and the role and responsibilities of MDE in relation to those of sponsors.
2. Creation of a process for establishing a minimum level of performance by sponsors regarding those roles and responsibilities and ongoing accountability of sponsors for fulfilling those responsibilities.
3. Creation of a method to hold a school harmless if a sponsor is found to violate the law or to demonstrate incompetence or to fail to fulfill its responsibilities as a sponsor.
4. Prohibition on sponsors selling or providing governance, management and financial services to the schools they sponsor. Sponsors cannot do oversight of the governance, management or finances - the key operational functions of a schoo - if it is the organization providing those services to the school.
5. Establishment of a requirement that any and all other services a school purchases from a sponsor need to be done through a competitive bidding process that is transparent and not conducted in conjunction with the renewal process of the charter.
6. Allow for sponsors to grant charters up to five years after the first three year contract for those schools that are performing well. This will provide sponsors with more leverage in dealing with schools that are in need of more intensive oversight.
7. Establishment of a system of incentives that are available to sponsors to recognize and reward outstanding performance of schools and develop additional sanctions for their arsenal, other than the "nuclear option - the withdrawal of sponsorship" that sponsors can utilize in holding schools accountable.
8. Extension of the period sponsors can charge the higher sponsorship fee from the first three years to the first five years.
9. Change in the sponsorship fee structure in the law from a stated dollar amount to a percentage of the per pupil general revenue formula. This will provide an automatic increase in the sponsor fee when the legislature provides more funding to schools and a freeze or cut if the legislature freezes or cuts education spending.
10. Establishment of a requirement that sponsors annually give a public accounting to schools and the state of the amount they spent on their sponsorship activities. In the almost seventeen years since Minnesota's Charter School Law was enacted, there have only been a couple of changes in the law focused on sponsors: one change has focused on which organizations can and cannot sponsor schools; the other was the establishment of a sponsorship fee.
Given the current challenges and opportunities ahead of the charter school movement, it is time for a systematic and comprehensive reform of sponsorship based on principles that address minimum standards of sponsor capacity and performance, sponsor accountability, incentives and sanctions that sponsors can utilize in holding schools accountable, and sponsor conflicts of interest, as well as the sponsorship fee.
Addressing the sponsorship fee in isolation will not help the charter school movement meet the current challenges nor the opportunities ahead. What it will do is send an unfortunate messag: that all that is really needed to improve things (in this case sponsorship) is more money - that is the message that we cannot afford or that we want to send.
By Eugene Piccolo
Executive Director