Pub. 5 2015-2016 Issue 2

22 Charter public schools are the most accountable public schools in Utah. I am simultaneously amused and bewildered by charter antagonists’ claims to the contrary. In recent months, it seems like anytime a charter antagonist realizes they are losing a policy debate, they resort to the fallacious claim that charters are not as accountable as district public schools. Fortunately, this ridiculous argument has proven ineffective, but since they’ve raised the subject, I’d like to take the opportunity to explore it. It appears that the premise of the accountability argument is based on the fact that board members of charter schools don’t stand for election. The suggestion is that an election every four years, like the one that school district boards face, is the purest form of accountability. Really? An election every four years between candidates that I would guess less than 1% of the population can even name is the highest form of accountability? Seriously, what percentage of Utahns can even name their local school board representative, let alone discuss a vote on a single issue they have taken in the last year. The fact of the matter is charter public schools face an election of sorts every day. They face the ultimate form of accountability—the free market. If parents don’t choose to investigate, enroll, volunteer and carpool their child to a charter school everyday, that school doesn’t get paid. There are no hold harmless provisions. The charter doesn’t get to keep 75% of their local revenues when a child leaves. And with the move to Average Daily Membership (ADM) that market based accountability gets a lot more meaningful. The fact is, we have formal elections in the public sector as an effort to manufacture some form of accountability for public structures that are insulated from the marketplace. The idea that elections are somehow a more meaningful form of accountability than choices made everyday in a free market True Accountability BY HOWARD HEADLEE, CHAIR OF THE UTAH STATE CHARTER SCHOOL BOARD