BY DANA DiFILIPPO
The Cincinnati Enquirer
The Cincinnati Federation of Teachers has endorsed union leader Tom Mooney's push for a system of public charter schools within Cincinnati Public Schools.
Union members approved a resolution Sept. 9 urging the school board to approve charter schools, or community schools, as they're known in Ohio, that would operate under the board's jurisdiction. "The local board shouldn't assist private groups who want to start community schools, because it wasn't elected to dismantle public education," said Mr. Mooney, a critic of Ohio's community school law. He first suggested the policy change in July. "The local board should not only allow but encourage charters within the public system."
Superintendent Steven Adamowski has expressed support for such a plan.
CPS administrators already are drafting a policy that will outline district strategies to entice groups to seek local board approval -- rather than state approval -- for new community schools. Chartering community schools through the local board would give the district more oversight and keep funds under district control, Mr. Mooney and CPS administrators agree. The district lost more than $1 million in subsidies to the two community schools that obtained state approval and opened in Hamilton County this fall, Mr. Mooney said.
The union proposal stresses that converting existing schools to community schools should be an option for all schools -- not just successful schools.
Chartering schools would free existing public schools from strangling state mandates, while giving CPS the chance to create smaller schools, offer programs parents want and serve neighborhoods that lack enough students for a traditional public school, Mr. Mooney said.
