Relocating families often face the dilemma of finding their dream home in a town with a mediocre public school system. If having that home is particularly important, parents may resort to enrolling their children in private schools, assuming far greater expenses than they anticipated.

But a growing trend in education is reducing the burden on both families and Realtors, whose list of responsibilities extends beyond just the realm of homebuying. Their clients also count on them for the most up-to-date information on local public school systems. And when Realtors come back with disappointing news, home sales may be lost.

Charter schools, now in existence in approximately half of the states in our nation, eliminate the rigid geographical boundaries that lock students in to particular districts. Relocating families who prefer not to enroll their children in the local public school system may instead send them to the nearest charter school. Dubbed "schools of choice," charter schools are based upon the philosophy that students, if granted self-determination for school choice using per-student tax dollars, foster a system of competition in which public schools vie for students. Charter schools are designed and operated by parents and teachers associated with the schools, rather than a centralized bureaucracy. While charter schools are free from most state rules and regulations, their performance of standards -- set by parents and teachers -- is still subject to review by the state.

Consider the example of the first school to be granted a charter by the state of Texas, Renaissance Charter School in Irving, Texas. Renaissance's inception was due in large part to the efforts of Renaissance Steering Committee Chairman Don Jones, who sought to create a college-prep institution synonymous with high parental involvement, limited enrollment, and "virtual classrooms" capitalizing on the latest in multimedia technology. Renaissance spent $2.5 million, $1 million of which came from donations, on its computer infrastructure. Its 660 students (up from 400 its first year of operation) come from 11 different school districts; 50 percent of those students come from outside Irving.

The school's fiber-optic system, Jones says, "is comparable to phone companies and other corporations. We have the most sophisticated classes in Texas." Its "no-walls" approach stresses a school-to-work education not limited to the classroom, in which students receive lessons in long-distance learning -- connecting to other schools, universities, and research laboratories -- and are required to take a Microsoft application exam upon graduation.

Renaissance hopes not only to harness the potential of the Internet and all forms of multimedia technology; school administrators also hope the charter school will serve as a model for the rest of the country, redefining the principles upon which most of the nation's charter schools were founded. "Most charter schools are an attempt to mitigate a terrible learning environment, usually in an inner-city situation," says Garvin Tate, CEO of Digital Arts Consulting, an Internet content provider currently working with Renaissance on a variety of ground-breaking technological R&D projects. "We don't consider the Renaissance a special school. Instead, it's a model -- it represents the typical school of the future."

What makes Renaissance Charter School different is that it "operates in a broad-based student population," Tate continues. "It's designed for a community where education is already working but needs to catch up to the new forms of technology and new media."

While charters have freedom from most state regulations, it appears that in the case of Renaissance Charter School, an innovative curriculum still produces the results to which the state of Texas continues to hold charter schools accountable. Renaissance ranked third in the state for its students' scores on the Texas Assessment of Academic Skills (TAAS) test during the 1996-1997 academic year. Here's a closer look at the results:

Renaissance representatives say their students' success is due to the charter school's focus not on TAAS scores themselves, but rather on the learning process itself, which enables high scores as a positive side effect. The school's 30 teachers, according to Steering Committee Chairman Jones, meet each morning to design interrelated lessons and collectively assign projects, a "connected learning" method in which the pieces fit together, making learning more meaningful, Jones says.

Charter schools are not only affecting the decisions of homebuyers across the country, but as they continue to increase in number (the Texas Legislature, for example, approved earlier this year the addition of 100 charters in Texas), their philosophies and technological break-throughs are likely to change the face of education as we know it.

Published: January 26, 1998

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