Charter schools offer choice for parents, students and teachers, and may save some money in Maine.

On Monday, the Legislature’s Education Committee will hold a public hearing on L.D. 1391, “An Act to Approve Public Charter Schools in Maine.” If passed, Maine would join 39 other states in permitting these independently managed public schools to complement the existing district public schools, thereby offering more education options to Maine families.

Since children learn in different ways and families differ in their needs, it is logical to expand education options by allowing teachers, parents and community groups to start this new kind of public school. Charter schools are tuition-free, open to all children with no admissions tests and non-religious. They would make new options available to all families, regardless of income.

Charter schools may choose to focus on a theme, a special instructional approach, or a particular age-group.

Among the 2,700 public charter schools in other states, which enrolled over 685,000 children this year, many focus on students at risk of dropping out and children who have various special needs.

Charter schools in Maine would operate under a contract with a local school board or a college or university. This contract would spell out the school’s program, the indicators to be used to measure student achievement and how the school will try to meet the goals of the Maine Learning Results.

The public charter school model is entirely voluntary – parents choose to send their children to these new public schools and teachers choose to teach in them. If a public charter school does not attract students, it will go out of business.

Once Maine passes the charter school enabling legislation, Maine’s charter schools would be eligible for the federal Charter School Grant Program, which awards up to $100,000 per year for the first three years to each charter school for start-up costs.

Public charter schools have been a bipartisan priority at the national level since 1996. The federal grant funds have increased from $6 million in 1996 to $200 million per year for the past 3 years. The federal program now also includes a new $25 million fund for charter school facility financing demonstration projects.

In Maine, public charter schools would be funded in a manner similar to the tuitioning out system. The average per pupil allocation for operating funds would follow each child to the public charter school the parents have chosen, so no new state GPA funds would be required. Charter schools would actually cost the state less money per pupil because teachers in charter schools will not be eligible for the retirement contribution that the state makes on behalf of teachers employed in district public schools.

A Small District Impact Aid Fund is proposed to help small school districts (less than 600 pupils), if a few students transfer to a public charter school. The superintendents of such districts may apply for assistance from this proposed fund.

Judith Jones of Hope, Maine, is a sociologist who has been a facilities planner for public schools and a co-founder of a charter school support group in Washington, D.C. She has also been a peer reviewer of applications from charter schools in other states to the federal Charter School Grant Program.