E-mail this page Reader Comments (below)

By BETH QUIMBY, Staff Writer Friday, April 13, 2007

A proposal that would allow up to 20 charter school programs at existing schools in the next decade will go before the Legislature's Education and Cultural Affairs Committee today.

Sponsored by Rep. Boyd Marley, D-Portland, the measure is one of five bills to be heard at 11 a.m. in Room 202 at the Cross State Office Building in Augusta that would create options for public school students. Other bills include proposals to expand alternative education programs.

While not as far-reaching as earlier unsuccessful charter school proposals in the Legislature, Marley's measure would create theme-based charter programs within existing schools in which students could choose to enroll. Marley, a public school special education teacher, said his idea grew out of his concern for students who aren't thriving in conventional programs.

His measure would establish charter programs based on a particular discipline, such as science, mathematics or the arts. He said the idea is to try to engage students by teaching them what most interests them.

Marley said his proposal would encourage programs based on experiential, or hands-on, learning, a method used at the Casco Bay High School in Portland.

"These programs would be educational incubators that will spark some of the best practices that will help small groups of students," Marley said.

If the programs are set up as charter schools within existing schools, he said, they could qualify for $300,000 in federal grants.

The charter programs would be staffed by teachers who would be school district employees with the same collective bargaining rights and benefits that other teachers in the district have. Many details of the proposal are yet to be worked out.

The Maine Association for Public Charter Schools backs the measure, but it is unclear where groups that have opposed charter school proposals in the past stand on the measure. The Maine Education Association, the state's largest teachers union, has not announced its position on the measure.

The Maine School Management Association, a lobbying group for school boards and school superintendents and administrators, has opposed earlier charter school bills out of concerns that charter schools would divert funding from existing schools. Executive Director Dale Douglass could not be reached for comment.

Judith Jones, head of the charter school association, said the bill would help bring more school choice to Maine students.

"It is reasonable to start creating alternatives to the existing system," Jones said.

Maine is one of 12 states that do not allow charter schools, which grew out of the public education reform movement of the 1980s. They are part of public districts but operate autonomously, with the goal of improving student performance.

Staff Writer Beth Quimby can be contacted at 791-6363 or at: