Yes to charter school. Islander News Editorial. June 5, 2008
Islander News Editorial. June 5, 2008
The Council should get ahead of the game by putting in an application for a charter high school.
The Village Council will vote next week on whether to spend $20,000 to file paperwork to open a municipal charter high school on the island.
While it is true there are many unanswered questions about a Key Biscayne charter high school — location, how it will be funded, how many students it will serve — to not file the application by the August 1 deadline would be counterproductive. Of all the projects being considered by the Council —expansion of the Community Center, a Performing Arts Conservancy or playing fields — none in our mind is more important than establishing a high school on Key Biscayne.
Many of us remember when the Key lost its sixth grade and 11 - and 12-year-old students were bused off the island to attend middle school.
Residents took the bull by the horns and worked not only to get the sixth grade back but to add seventh- and eighth-grade classrooms.
It is that commitment to education that is part of the Key's history and should also be part of the Key's future. The only piece of the puzzle missing is a high school.
Some Council members would prefer not to take action on the charter school until a recently-hired consultant completes a study. But not filing by the August 1 deadline would mean we are closing the door on the possibility of opening a municipal charter school in the 2009-2010 academic year.
That is a door we want to keep open.
As charter high school advocate Angel Martin explained to the Council last week, the application is non-binding, meaning it doesn't require Key Biscayne to open a high school in 20092010 or at all. "It just gets us into the pipeline," he explained.
If the Village does not file the application, however, it loses the opportunity to open a school during the 2009-2010 school year —even if it's ready to do so.
We are a can-do community. Other municipalities with fewer resources and less commitment to education have started schools without delay. So can we.
The Council should approve spending the $20,000 to file the application.
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