Fifteen out-of-county students will continue to attend the Academic Magnet and School of the Arts without paying tuition. One is a senior. Cheaters win again. You just need to have money to beat the system.
Aside from either lying about their addresses or school administrators' looking the other way, don't you wonder if any money or favors changed hands in CCSD? Who are these people who believe they are entitled?
After all, especially at the Academic Magnet that education should be worth at least $20,000 per year. A great deal for residents of Berkeley and Dorchester Counties, isn't it?
And, if you believe that not a single resident of Charleston County has written a letter about this cheating to the P&C in the last week, I have a bridge for sale in Brooklyn.
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
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15 comments:
Or it may show that Charleston County taxpayers, like sheep, are resigned to our fate. School administrators cheat, too. It's all OPM. Great lesson in reality for our kids, right?
Any parent whose child was on a magnet school waiting list might do the investigating at no cost to the district if the parent knew turning up a freeloader might open up a new seat for their child. District claims that 'verifying addresses costs too much' or 'it takes too long' are bogus.
The same standard should be upheld for charter schools as for magnet schools. The addresses should be verified for all attendees, including, and especially, charter board members.
From the P&C:
"Magnet schools typically verify the residency of a sample of 20 percent of its enrollment per quarter, and the remainder of the district's magnet schools will start those audits next week.
District leaders launched schoolwide audits for Academic Magnet High and School of the Arts because of concerns about noncounty residents enrolled in those schools.
Three employees spent two weeks pulling each student's file and comparing affidavits of residency with a lease or recent tax bill and an additional proof of residency, such as a utility bill or voter registration card. All three documents had to have the same address."
The only magnet school experience I have is with AMHS, where my daughter is a sophomore. Each year, I've taken her to the school for registration; I've been required to show a tax bill for our primary home; a notarized affidavit stating that I live in Charleston County; and a utility bill, car registration, etc.
Both years, when we appeared at the school for registration, one of the first stops was at a table where someone verified that we have these 3 pieces of paper. I guess I was naive to think they were taking an extra 5 seconds to verify that the addresses matched. There is no excuse for the *school* not checking every single student's paperwork, since they're already checking that they've turned it in.
Now, about those 3 employees working 2 weeks to verify. They must have been pretty dang slow. SOA and AMHS, together, have roughly 1700 students. At a hugely generous 5 minutes per check (remember, all you have to do is compare addresses on 3 pieces of paper), that's 8500 minutes, or about 142 hours. I suppose it could have taken 2 REALLY LAZY employees 2 weeks to finish - what was the 3rd one doing? Probably not checking the Buist addresses.
Also, I agree that the same general procedure should be followed for charter schools; however it wouldn't necessarily be uniform across the board. My younger child attends a Charleston County charter school that (by charter, in accordance with state charter school law) allows Berkeley County students to attend. I don't know whether any actually are attending, and they get last priority in the lottery - but it is possible. It would depend on what the charter says.
'State' Charter schools (like palmetto scholars academy) must accept any student from anywhere in the state. County Charter schools must accept anyone from within the county. The process 'Clisby' describes at AMHS is the same at any school, in order to register you must prove you live in the attendance zone and the docs she mentions are what is required to do that. If that is being done, there should be no mistakes. However, this 'law' that says if you own property kind of overrides that, since owning property does not necesarily mean you are paying a light bill. This is a can of worms nobody wanted opened. The sad thing is that the bottom line is it is a terrible example for the kids and unforuntate for any charleston resident who is backdoored for out of county students.
Anonymous 3:33: You are incorrect. Here's a link to the SC charter school law:
http://www.scstatehouse.gov/cgi-bin/query.exe?first=DOC&querytext=charter%20schools&category=Code&conid=6716577&result_pos=0&keyval=1194
From the state law:
SECTION 59-40-145. Students attending charter schools outside district of residence. [SC ST SEC 59-40-145]
A child who resides in a school district other than the one where a charter school is located may attend a charter school outside his district of residence; however, the receiving charter school shall have authority to grant or deny permission for the student to attend pursuant to Sections 59-40-40(2)(b) and 59-40-50(B)(7) and (8) according to the terms of the charter after in-district children have been given priority in enrollment. However, the out-of-district enrollment shall not exceed twenty percent of the total enrollment of the charter school without the approval of the sponsoring district board of trustees. The district sending children to the charter school under the terms of this section must be notified immediately of the transferring students. Out-of-district students must be considered based on the order in which their applications are received. If the twenty percent out-of-district enrollment is from one school district, then the sending district must concur with any additional students transferring from that district to attend the charter school. The charter school to which the child is transferring shall be eligible for state and federal funding according to the formula defined in Section 59-40-140(A), (B), and (C), as applicable. However, this section does not apply to a charter school sponsored by the South Carolina Public Charter School District Board of Trustees.
With regards to charters: I am simply saying they should be subject to the same scrutiny (AUDIT) that would apply to magnets. There are no vacancies in the 6th grade at one particular charter. As a matter of fact there is a lengthy waiting list. Therefore, there should be no out of county students attending, right?
I agree about the audit; I'm simply pointing out that there is not *necessarily* anything wrong with an out-of-county student attending a charter school. An audit would have to recognize that fact.
As for your example - your conclusion doesn't necessarily follow from the premise. What if an out-of-county student had started at the school as a 4th-grader? Then sure, I'd expect that student could still be attending in 6th grade even if there were a 6th-grade waiting list from Charleston County; I don't know of any charter school that doesn't give first priority to returning students. A more interesting question would be: what happens if a student from Charleston County is admitted, and the family later moves out of the county? Can the student stay at the school? Since the law specifically allows out-of-district students to attend charter schools - maybe.
As confusing as the state laws may seem as it applies to cross county line enrollments, what is clear is the leadership in the magnet schools and at the superintendent's level haven't done their job. They would have continued with the status quo if someone hadn't complained.
I agree with Clisby. This isn't rocket science. I also agree that if the parents with a child on a waiting list were able to do something about this process, they should. Though it seems the administration is reacting rather late, it is only right that a comparable number of seats should open up to replace those taken by the already identified out of county students currently admitted to the magnet schools.
The address verification process could have moved forward far more smoothly and at almost no cost to the district if the district had used common sense from the beginning. I would also helped it the superintendent had taken previous complaints from these parents more seriously than she did.
I think most people would now like to know if the district really is taking steps to inform those on the magnet waiting lists that new seats have been created. Or is this just more smoke and mirrors from the superintendent's office?
That's right. Did all of the 15 students own property in Charleston County (the focus of the pending lawsuit?)
If not, why are they enrolled?
More interesting - why is this 100% audit not being done at Buist? It's complete BS to say it takes too much time. It's NOT. THAT. HARD.
No, it isn't hard. If eligible 'in-county' residents have to provide power bills, notarized docs etc, what do out of county residents provide to slip into AMHS? Simply a tax bill? Something isn't consistent here, sounds like it is mostly inconsistent due to the county's history with Buist which is now re-bubbling at another start school, AMHS.
Thanks for pointing out my error in my 323 post from yesterday- I would think that most Charleston County Charters are full of Charleston County people since most are considered 'better' than neighborhood alternatives but who the heck knows. Seems like a huge inconvenience for anyone from Dorchester, Colleton, Berkeley etc to travel to JICHS or orange grove for example, but maybe they are. This labyrinth of who's on first and why is getting a bit excessive... when i was in school here the only reason i got to go outside of my neighborhood was because my mom was a teacher. if you wanted to go to another school, you moved, end of story. but that was in the days of no charters, no magnets, no NCLB, no Columbine, very little drugs, teen pregnancy etc etc etc.
I also wouldn't think there are that many out-of-county residents at CCSD charter schools. However, it's not inconceivable to me that there are some. Suppose you live on Daniel Island or in Summerville, but work in Charleston or Mt. Pleasant, and so you'd like your child to be at a school nearer your work. If you can legally get him/her in, why not? I'm not talking about lying on applications, or doing anything dishonest. If the law and the charter school say you can do it, and it suits you, I say go for it. If people don't like the law that says this is permissible, they're perfectly free to contact their state legislators to try to get it changed.
have jim Winbush fix it, he is good at cheating and lying
That's the trouble with CCSD. The administration has been caught too many times trying to explain away its mistakes. We are beyond the pooint of trusting CCSD to audit itself.
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