Thread: Farmers Branch official talks of opening city-run schoo

Farmers Branch official talks of opening city-run school

City-run charter or private academy seen as way to boost ratings

12:00 AM CDT on Saturday, August 25, 2007

By STEPHANIE SANDOVAL and KATHERINE LEAL UNMUTH / The Dallas Morning News

Farmers Branch City Council member Tim O'Hare, the driving force behind the city's movement targeting illegal immigrants, has a new idea – a city-operated private school.

Mr. O'Hare and other City Council members, citing growing resident frustration with the Carrollton-Farmers Branch school district's dropout rate, declining academic ratings and the number of illegal immigrants attending schools in Farmers Branch, have asked city staff and city attorneys to research a city school. The city is also researching the prospect of a charter school.

"And of course we always get back to when you're spending a lot of money to deal with people that are here illegally, that drains resources and time and energy," Mr. O'Hare said. "That's an issue obviously that's on the hearts of many people who live here."

Despite his views on illegal immigrants, Mr. O'Hare said that keeping illegal immigrants out of a city-run school wasn't part of his rationale for asking staff to look into the school. He said he didn't know how or whether illegal immigrants could be kept out of such a school.

"It didn't cross my mind that hey, this is the way that people can go to school and not deal with illegal immigrants," Mr. O'Hare said.

Public schools are required to educate all children regardless of immigration status. Charter schools can set up an application process for students but also cannot deny students based on their immigration status.

The main goal is to keep people from moving out of Farmers Branch or not moving into Farmers Branch because they don't want to send their children to public schools, Mr. O'Hare said. A city school would be an alternative for those who couldn't afford private schools, he said.

A municipality opening a private or charter school is not new, but it is rare.

Little precedent

In 2001, the town of Westlake in northeast Tarrant County became the first – and only – city in Texas to get permission to open a charter school. The Westlake Academy opened in 2003.

Addison is studying the possibility of opening a charter school.

One parent of children attending Carrollton-Farmers Branch schools, David Kirby, said such a plan by Farmers Branch could cause "de facto segregation."

"I don't think it would help the situation," he said. "It may even aggravate it. It would help the kids going to that school, but what's going to happen to everybody else? If they have a charter school and more of the affluent children go to that school, then you're going to leave the remainder attending the public school system, and that aggravates the situation."

Mr. Kirby is a former member of Farmers Branch's school-community relations committee. The city recently disbanded the committee, which formed more than 10 years ago when the city accused the district of segregating mostly poor Hispanic children into schools in Farmers Branch, and asked for boundary changes.

Mr. Kirby became frustrated with the high dropout rate and poor athletics record at R.L. Turner High School, and began organizing meetings with parents and teachers last year. But he said many families are already leaving the public schools for private schools and that another school that would draw more of the affluent children out of the district is not a solution.

Elementary students in schools in Farmers Branch and south Carrollton that feed into the high school were 86 percent Hispanic and 71 percent poor – much higher than in other areas of the district. The school district spans six cities and was 49 percent Hispanic and 51 percent poor last year.

In 2006, Turner High had 722 freshmen and just 333 seniors, one indicator of a high dropout rate.

Some are watching closely to see whether enrollment in schools with Farmers Branch students will drop when class begins Monday because of the ordinance enacted by the city – put on hold because of court challenges – banning landlords from renting apartments to illegal immigrants.

No serious proposal

School board President John Tepper said he had not heard of any serious proposal but has heard of talk of such an idea in the past. He questioned what sort of population the school would target.

"You can't address whether there's a need for it until you know what specific group the school is targeting," he said.

Farmers Branch City Council member David Koch said his interest in researching a city school doesn't have anything to do with illegal immigrants, just school rankings.

"As a parent and resident of the city, I would like to see our school district as exemplary," said Mr. Koch, whose three children attend private schools. "Anything short of that leaves room for improvement."

But Mr. O'Hare said residents have made it clear that they are frustrated with large numbers of students who don't speak English.

"We all know what's going on here," Mr. O'Hare wrote recently on his blog. "The biggest reason the two districts that our kids feed into get a C grade is due to the large number of illegal aliens that live within our districts... Is there any doubt in anyone's mind that if you removed the scores of illegal students from the equation that Hispanic scores would shoot up?"

Tony Muñoz, a Mexican-American parent of children in Farmers Branch schools, said he would rather see more dialogue between the city and school district about serious education reforms. He also quit the defunct city education committee after becoming frustrated with the immigration ordinances and conversations that focused on school demographics.

"Their motivations are quite clear," he said. "They think there are too many Hispanics and too many poor kids in the schools. It's not like the school system is falling apart. They want to entice people with their own private Highland Park school instead of Carrollton-Farmers Branch ISD."

Drop in ratings

Carrollton-Farmers Branch Superintendent Annette Griffin said the district is doing a good job of educating students – and that the district was 33 students in one sub-population group of students away from maintaining a "recognized" status.

Last year the school district and every school in Farmers Branch were rated recognized. This year, the district's rating dropped to acceptable because of low science scores among Hispanic students. The district was not alone – many school districts in the state dropped this year when standards were raised. Three of the five campuses in Farmers Branch are still recognized.

"I'm not opposed to [Farmers Branch] doing that if that's what they want to do," Dr. Griffin said. "Parents have choices and should have choices."

Texas Education Agency spokeswoman Suzanne Marchman said the state board of education has so far this year decided not to open up any applications for new charters because the state is almost at its cap of 215. Charters may be run by an institution of higher learning, a nonprofit group or a government entity.

For the most part, "Cities just aren't in the business of education," she said. "It's complex and complicated and a lot of cities already have their plates full."

Mr. O'Hare cautions residents that Farmers Branch is just doing research, and the city may not make the cut when it comes to opening and running a school.

"Sometimes you have to think out of the box and many times when you're thinking out of the box, the ideas you come up with aren't doable for legal, logistical or financial reasons," Mr. O'Hare said. "But you have to come up with ideas and throw things out there and do research and find out what can work, otherwise you never do anything new or interesting."

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I'm in this same boat. I'm looking to move out of Farmers Branch into Plano so what when I have kids, at least they'll get a decent public school education and not have to worry about speaking Spanish at school.

86 percent Hispanic population in the FB schools is pretty high! And looks like only half the school pop graduates from high school. Which means they're dumbing down the education to squeak as many kids through the system as possible. NOT what I want for my kids!

TexasGal