Yes, monitor choice schools


Prior to this school year, a private school in the Milwaukee choice program could get state checks without showing that the building it occupied was safe for kids. But with the blessing of the legislative panel that oversees regulations, a new rule went into effect Aug. 1 - none too soon - mandating that schools submit to the state Department of Public Instruction copies of their city-issued occupancy permits.

Four schools have failed to comply, and the state has rightly sent them letters threatening their funds. A reporter could not locate one of those schools, Sensas-

Utcha Institute of Holistic Learning, whose listed address was an old house too small to handle the 131 students the institute has said it would serve.

The flap over occupancy permits points to an issue that has hung over the choice program since its inception: How heavily, or lightly, should the state regulate the schools? In general, foes of choice favor heavy regulation; supporters, not surprisingly, favor light monitoring, if they acknowledge the need for any at all.

The light touch works better, in our judgment - but not so light that it jeopardizes the well-being of children or makes the choice program easy prey for con artists. Right now, oversight may be too light.

The public schools, which are choking in red tape, are not the model the state should follow. Still, choice schools should be required to meet a few more minimal standards. In addition to the wise new rule on occupancy permits, other areas the Legislature should examine:

Money. The state needs assurances that choice schools have the financial wherewithal to keep running during an academic year, as State Rep. Annette Polly Williams (D-Milwaukee), the program's founder, has pointed out.

Spot checks. DPI should gain the power to do unannounced site visits - to check financial records and enrollment figures and to otherwise ensure that the schools are following the rules. Background. Right now, convicted murderers and rapists can hang up shingles and run choice schools - a prospect the state must foreclose. Tests. The public has no way of telling how well choice students are performing - a problem DPI Superintendent John Benson has rightly proposed in his budget to fix, by requiring the schools to administer the same standardized tests that apply to public schools.

The problem choice schools are a tiny minority; the vast majority are doing good work. The state shouldn't burden the good schools with a tangle of regulations just to get at the minority. But the state should better protect itself and schoolchildren from abuse by putting into effect a few more, deftly crafted rules.