Charters expand as school choice matures

Texas' largest charter school chain plans to expand outside the state - a signal of the maturation of the school-choice movement that has a strong Houston presence.

Harmony Public Schools, a 40-school network in Texas founded by Turkish immigrants, is asking to open a math- and science-focused elementary school in Washington, D.C. The authorizing board there will vote Monday on whether to grant the charter.

The high-performing charter school chain - recent winner of the White House's Race to the Top prize - has loud critics who fear the school is tied to controversial Turkish cleric Fethullah Gulen. Harmony leaders, who deny any connection, are confident their academic track record will speak for itself.

Harmony will follow Houston-born charter chains KIPP and YES Prep with its out-of-state expansion. Another charter, Texas' Responsive Education Solutions, recently expanded to Arkansas.

Likewise, several proven chains from other states are expanding, with some eyeing Texas. Rocketship Education, for example, is considering expanding from California, Wisconsin and Tennessee into Texas, Louisiana and D.C. And Arizona's Carpe Diem received one of four charters handed out by the Texas Education Agency commissioner this year; it will open a campus in San Antonio.

"It's an exciting time for folks involved in public charter schools and school choice, and it's great for other states to realize the great things happening in Texas," said Andrew Campanella, president of National School Choice Week, which will kick off in January in Houston. "Houston was really the incubator for some of the best school choice opportunities in the country. Some of the most replicable charters are from there."

Over two decades, charter schools - taxpayer-funded public schools designed to offer families choices - have reached 1.5 million students. More than 100,000 of those are in Texas with charter school enrollment here growing nearly 15 percent a year.

And roughly 1 million children across the country are on waiting lists for charter schools.

"We are getting to what I think is a tipping point for overall school choice in the country," Campanella said. "People en masse are coming to the realization that they should have choice in their child's education."

Federal grant money, as well as legislative leniency, have paved the way for well-established schools to take their shows on the road, where they hope to prove their successes can be replicated.

"That will be the real test of chartering as an innovation - whether they can take their programs to scale," said Nina Rees, president of the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools.

KIPP - founded in a Houston ISD classroom in 1994 - has led the way with expansion. The system now has 141 schools in 20 states. YES Public Schools recently announced plans to open six schools in Memphis, Tenn., and four in Louisiana.

David Dunn, executive director of the Texas Charter Schools Association, welcomes the new chains into the mix.

"It's all about wanting as many good, high-quality schools in our state as we possibly can have," he said.

Soner Tarim, founder and superintendent of Harmony Public Schools, said he's excited to open in the nation's capital, where there's a strong need for comprehensive science, technology, engineering and math programs. About 44 percent of public school students in D.C. attend charter schools, and the community offers strong support.

"We felt that because there's so much attention, the best place to show them how intense, rigorous STEM education is done, is D.C.," Tarim said.

Houston is the Silicon Valley of charter schools, Tarim said, and their leaders must be successful as they take their school models out-of-state.

"KIPP and YES folks and our team knows we cannot mess it up," he said. "We have to set an example. We have to raise the bar in Texas and elsewhere."