Lansing - Michigan's highest education official torpedoed the controversial Noah Webster Academy's bid for public money Thursday, ruling that it fails to meet charter school requirements.
At the same time, Schools Supt. Robert Schiller said eight other schools are entitled to share about $4 million. Those charter schools have about 750 students in Detroit, Macomb County, and outstate.
However, their state aid payments are blocked until Ingham County Circuit Judge William Collette decides whether the charter school law is constitutional. That law allows colleges, community colleges, school districts and intermediate school districts to "charter" - license - new public schools. A hearing on a lawsuit challenging the law is scheduled next Tuesday. Noah Webster, a home schooling network chartered by the Berlin Township school district in Ionia County, claims 1,500 to 2,000 students. It has drawn the most attention - and fire - as Michigan implements the 1993 charter school law.
Schiller said Noah Webster is ineligible for about $5,500 a year in state aid for each student. The law requires each charter school to operate at a single location but "the truth of the matter is the pupils of Noah Webster are scattered across the state, located in individual homes," he said. When auditors visited Noah Webster headquarters, a log home south of Ionia, "there was not one student at the site.
"He also said the law requires certified teachers, but "those teaching the students in the homes throughout the state are not certified in Michigan." David Kallman, a lawyer of Noah Webster, said the school will continue its court fight. "We're more than a toll-free phone number," he said. "We're within the legislative intent."
Leaders of the approved charter schools were pleased by Schiller's action, but concerned about delays caused by the lawsuit from a group that includes the Michigan Education Association. Those eight schools had expected the first of their nine annual installments to be paid Thursday.
"It's all political, it's sour
grapes, a poor ploy to disrupt the lives of 125 students, said
Principal David Lehman of West
Michigan Academy for Environmental Science in Tallmadge Township
near Grand Rapids. If
everything was so rosy in all the public schools, I wouldn't have
125 students here and 50 on
a waiting list," he said. His students, in kindergarten through
seventh grade, live in seven
school districts. "We've been meticulous in abiding by the laws all
other public schools abide
by," said Lehman. He said he is paying salaries and expenses
through a second mortgage on
his home. Rosaana Pardo, executive director of Casa Maria Academy in
Detroit, said her school
had borrowed money from a community group to operate this fall.Casa
Maria has 38
"high-risk" middle schoolers aged12-16, plus six on a waiting list.
"The philosophy is to
provide intensive schooling, curriculum and counseling to high-risk
youth to divert them from
delinquency. It's a tremendous challenge," she said.The school had
operated with two years'
funding from the state Department of Social Services and two years'
funding from Wayne
County.Education alternativesState Schools Supt. Robert Schiller
authorized state spending of
about $4 million for eight charter schools. All payments are on
hold until courts decide
whether Michigan's charter school law is constitutional.
School Location
Enrollment
Horizons High School Wyoming 200
West Mich. Academyfor Environmental Sci. Grand Rapids 125
Aisha Shule/W.E.B. Dubois Academy Detroit 82
New Branches School Grand Rapids 72
Windover High School Midland 71
Macomb Academy Clinton Twp. 49
Casa Maria Academy Detroit 38
Northlane Math & Science Academy Freeland 37
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