by Aaron Mudd

When the Kentucky Board of Education studies the concept of public charter schools in Kentucky next month, regional educators William Twyman and Gary Houchens will be part of a process that could inform lawmakers should they take action on school choice during next year's legislative session.

Board Chairman Twyman, a former educator at Glasgow Independent Schools, stressed that the board's only goal is to see if the concept could work for Kentucky's students. The board plans to have a working session Nov. 28 to study the issue before telling lawmakers where it stands.

"We’re just going to look at all the data, all the information that we get," Twyman said in recent interview with the Daily News. "We’re just not sure now how the information is going to turn out. ... We just don’t have enough information now to actually make a determination."

Houchens is also a board member and a professor with Western Kentucky University's Department of Educational Administration, Leadership and Research. For Houchens, a longtime supporter of school choice, Kentucky has a chance to follow the lead of 43 other states with some form of charter schools.

"We have an opportunity here in Kentucky to learn from some of the worst examples and some of the best examples," he said.

Houchens, who was appointed by charter school supporter Gov. Matt Bevin earlier this year, said he views charter schools as a way to expand school choice for disadvantaged students and part of a broader set of tools for expanding learning opportunities.

"We need to approach school improvement in a really comprehensive sort of way," he said, also stressing his views don't necessarily represent the entire board.

Houchens described charter schools as having more autonomy from restrictive regulations in exchange for increased accountability to produce results and meet expectations.

There are more than 6,700 charters schools across 42 states and the District of Columbia that educate nearly 3 million kids, according to the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools.

The organization, which bills itself "as the leading national nonprofit organization committed to advancing the public charter school movement," cites a mix of 16 regional and national studies published since 2010 on charter schools. Fifteen of the 16 studies found charter students do better in school than their traditional school peers, with one study finding mixed results, according to the Alliance's website.

"The most recent of those studies, by the Center for Research on Educational Outcomes at Stanford University, found that charter schools do a better job teaching low-income students, minority students and students who are still learning English than traditional schools," according to the NAPCS.

Previous legislation has attempted to start pilot charter projects in Jefferson and Fayette counties but failed. Kentucky does have magnet schools, however, which focus on specific areas such as science or the arts and are used to increase diversity in the school population. According to Public School Review, which evaluates and offers information on public schools, there are 39 magnet schools in the state educating 35,177 students.

As many as 43 states have laws permitting charter schools, but Kentucky doesn't, according to the Kentucky Department of Education.

Education and Workforce Development Cabinet Secretary Hal Heiner and some Bevin-appointed members of the Kentucky Board of Education raised the issue during the state board's monthly meeting earlier this month, according to a staff report from the Kentucky School Boards Association. They described charter schools as an alternative for "failing public schools," the report said.

In an interview with the Daily News, Heiner said he wanted the board to consider the merits of more specialized forms of schooling in light of disparities in achievement between non-gap children and children on free and reduced lunch or children of color.

"What we see around the country is when you have greater specialization in education all children can succeed," he said.

Heiner said he brought up charter schools during a report to the board about issues with Kentucky's achievement gap. He cited the recent release of 2016 K-PREP test scores from the Kentucky Department of Education.

In elementary school reading, Heiner said in his report, 60 percent of white students scored proficient or distinguished compared to only 33.7 percent of African-American students. Elementary math performance was worse, he said, where 55.2 percent of white students were proficient or distinguished. That number for African-American students was at 31.5 percent.

Heiner argues gaps are even larger in Fayette and Jefferson counties and that Districts of Innovation, which were established by law in 2012, don't have the autonomy needed to make real changes.

One advantage of charters, Heiner said, is that some programs allow students more class time and more time with the same teacher over multiple years.

"Kentucky’s 2016 assessment results provide even further evidence that it is past time for Kentucky to pass a strong public charter school law, and bring to our communities and our children a tool which has proven to be successful with reducing racial and socioeconomic achievement gaps," Heiner said in his report. "Everything Kentucky is currently doing has proven to not be enough to get the job done."

Despite the partisanship that has stalled the introduction of charter schools in Kentucky in recent years, Heiner said it's not a partisan issue nationally, citing support from President Barack Obama.

"The real issue here is not so much the school but how are we going to best address this achievement gap," he told the Daily News.

Education Commissioner Stephen Pruitt suggested the board set aside time for the special meeting before making a decision on charters for its 2017 legislative agenda. Heiner also asked board members to observe charter schools outside of Kentucky before deciding, the KSBA report said.

In a release from the Kentucky Department of Education, Pruitt encouraged others to keep an open mind.

"I think we need to look at all of the options for school improvement," he said. "I’ve seen charters done well and not so well, so I don’t think that they are necessarily a silver bullet that will solve all of our problems with the achievement gap. However, we do need to consider a variety of tools in our utility belt for closing the opportunity and achievement gaps as well as the continuous improvement of all of our schools."

Bowling Green Independent School District Superintendent Gary Fields agreed that charter schools aren't necessarily a panacea.

"I do agree with him that it’s not the silver bullet that I think sometimes proponents mention," he said. "I think we have outstanding public schools throughout Kentucky, and we’re fortunate I think in south central Kentucky to have outstanding schools."

However, he thinks lawmakers should fully fund public schools before diverting money into another pot, he said.

"We still only get half funding for full-day kindergarten right now," Fields said, as an example.

State Sen. Mike Wilson, R-Bowling Green, also supports charter schools and sees them "another tool in the toolbox" for addressing gap in achievement among disadvantaged students.

Wilson supported legislation to create public charter school pilots in Jefferson and Fayette counties. But the legislation never got a hearing in the state House of Representatives, he said, continuing a trend he's seen for several years.

Despite the opposition, Wilson contends charter schools aren't really a partisan issue.

"It seems to be there’s a fear that it will take away money from public schools," he said, saying that's not the case because the charter schools are public not private.

Wilson also there's support for it on a community level.

"This has been a grassroots-led effort," he said. "It’s not been a top down approach. It’s been the community crying out."

Houchens said public charter schools could allow for fresh approaches in education.

"It would allow schools to be more innovative in terms of the curriculum they deliver, in terms of the way they manage their instructional time," he said.

"I’m definitely for trying to give our schools more flexibility," Houchens said, adding that's not in conflict with freeing conventional schools from regulations.

For Houchens, charter schools are really for poor and disadvantaged students.

"The truth is that affluent parents already have school choice," he said. "It’s the poor and the working middle class who typically have to take whatever they’re school district is offering."

"The key thing here really is in expanding parental options," he said.