Friday, April 9, 2010 -

Memphis Business Journal - by Michael Sheffield -

Although charter schools played a key role in Tennessee’s $500 million Race to the Top education grant, chances are slim that Memphis charter schools will see much benefit.

Memphis City Schools will receive a $68.4 million share of the federal funds, which it can distribute at its discretion, says Amanda Maynord Anderson, deputy director of communications for the Tennessee Department of Education. But the funds can’t be used to close the gap between the $9,254 MCS spends per student in its schools and the roughly $7,000 charters get per student. And charter schools are now facing even smaller budgets.

Memphis City Schools makes 10 equal payments to charter schools per year, depending on the number of students the schools have. Because of its own budget issues with the Memphis City Council, MCS has proposed cutting $470 per student in funding to charter schools for the rest of the 2009-10 school year, a move that could be a death knell for some charter schools.

“Charters don’t have the reserves to deal with these issues,” says Matt Throckmorton, executive director of the Tennessee Charter Schools Association. “We’re in a situation where we will lose charter schools because of this.”

The proposed cut from MCS is even more ironic since the state’s decision last summer to increase the number of charter schools allowed in Tennessee to 90 (35 in Memphis) made its application more appealing to the U.S. Department of Education, according to Anderson.

“They were looking for states to be more aggressive and bold and that was something we were touting,” she says.

This is the second time MCS has received a funding windfall that won’t directly be shared with charter schools. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation awarded MCS $90 million in funding late last year to improve teacher quality and retention. Charter schools, said MCS superintendent Kriner Cash, could reap “residual benefits” from the results of the studies the grant will fund.

For two charter schools in particular, Memphis Business Academy and Memphis College Preparatory School, funding cuts couldn’t have come at a worse time.

In December, Memphis Business Academy purchased an 88,000-square-foot former Kmart property in Frayser that will house its new high school starting this fall. Memphis College Preparatory is launching this fall with its first class of kindergartners.

Anthony Anderson, executive director of Memphis Business Academy, which has $1.4 million invested in its new building, says despite the real possibility of having less money to work with, his school will be open in the fall, even if it means making cuts.

Michael Whaley, founder of Memphis College Preparatory, is a graduate of Teach For America, which supplies teachers to the inner city. He says reducing an already reduced amount of funding will make it harder for charters to deliver on their missions, but students ultimately pay the price.

“It’s not about charter schools vs. public schools or public schools vs. private schools,” Whaley says. “We need to refocus this whole discussion on the kids’ education and future.”

Anthony Anderson says the issue has to be tackled “piece by piece,” but he doesn’t think the state should step in and force MCS to do anything without looking at the larger issue of school funding in Memphis.

The issue, he says, is more about MCS funding as a whole.

Whaley, meanwhile, is facing an uphill battle before his school even gets started.

“We’ll have to get even leaner with our budget,” Whaley says. “We’re still confident and excited, but there are still a lot of challenges ahead.”

Tennessee Charter Schools Association

Executive director: Matt Throckmorton
Address: 3022 Vanderbilt Place, Nashville 37212
Phone: (615) 327-4627
Web site: www.tncharterschools.org