Under existing law, only two charter schools are allowed in each city or town.

09:44 AM EST on Tuesday, December 7, 2004

BY LINDA BORG
Journal Staff Writer

Journal photo / John Freidah

Elizabeth Melgar, 6, takes part last week in first-grade teacher Elizabeth Medeiros' reading and writing workshop at the Learning Community Charter School, in Pawtucket. Governor Carcieri has praised the Learning Community and other charter schools.

PAWTUCKET -- Calling charter schools a promising public school alternative, Governor Carcieri urged the legislature to remove the cap on the number of charter schools allowed in each district.

Under existing law, only two charter schools are allowed in each city or town. Providence, which is permitted to have four, has already reached its limit.

Carcieri also urged the General Assembly to lift the one-year moratorium on new charters, which the legislature passed at the end of last year's session.

"For a relatively new movement, charter schools are doing a great job," the governor said yesterday. "We have a growing demand for charter schools. Unfortunately, the General Assembly put a moratorium on charters. I think that's a move in the wrong direction."

But Rep. Paul W. Crowley, chairman of the House Finance Subcommittee on Education, said he won't agree to any changes in the charter law unless Carcieri promises to do something about the way traditional public schools are financed.

"Remember what he did last year," said Crowley, who also serves on the Board of Regents. "He started a range war in education. It's nice to say this about charters, but if it's not part of a comprehensive package on public school funding, it's not going anywhere."

Carcieri made his comments during a visit to the Learning Community Charter School, in Pawtucket, which opened its doors to 100 kindergarten and first-grade students this fall. The school serves students from Providence, Pawtucket and Central Falls.

Carcieri praised the Learning Community for making so much progress in its first 60 days. Some students have already jumped two and three reading levels, according to Marcia Uretsky, the director of instruction.

"This is what education is -- and should be -- all about," Carcieri said. "The good news is that Rhode Island's 11 charter schools are meeting their academic targets. There is no question they are getting the job done."

Carcieri's comments come at a time when charter schools are under attack nationally. A highly controversial study by the American Federation of Teachers concluded that charter school students aren't performing as well as their regular public school peers.

Charter schools are public schools with one big difference: they operate without many of the constraints imposed by the typical public school bureaucracy.

At the Learning Community, where almost all of the children are poor and come from Spanish-speaking households, each student is told that he or she is a leader.

"We are about leadership at every level," said codirector Meg O'Leary. "When our students raise their hand and we can't hear them, we say, 'Let me hear your voice.' "

Three years ago, O'Leary and codirector Sarah Friedman were helping teachers in six Providence elementary schools experiment with different instructional methods.

But they said they could only go so far within the structure of a large public school system. And so O'Leary and Friedman asked, "What would happen if we tried these experiments on a larger scale? Could a school be built on the concepts of collegial sharing and self-criticism?"

The Learning Community was born out of those beliefs. O'Leary and Friedman met with each parent and child before the school opened in September. "Tell me about your child," they said. "What are her hobbies? What do you do when she gets upset?"

Parents sign a contract where they commit to reading to their children 15 minutes a day. They also agree to volunteer in the community 12 to 15 hours a year.

At this school, parents are not only welcome, they have their own room, where they have access to a lending library.

Each child takes home a book every night and the parent signs off when the child has finished it. Parents are given books in Spanish so they can read along with their son or daughter. Finally, each child is assigned to read so many books a year, depending on his or her ability.

The Learning Community has another mission: training student teachers to become powerful leaders who aren't afraid of change.

"We question everything," Uretsky said. "We're always asking, 'What works for our kids?' "

The directors are especially committed to training minority teachers and teachers who speak Spanish because there is a shortage of both specialties in Rhode Island.

As Friedman walks from one classroom to another, she addresses each child by name. In every room, one child -- the classroom greeter -- welcomes visitors with a handshake and a smile. The children are chatty and curious, and listen quietly when another child speaks.

The goal of this school is to produce curious, confident children who aren't afraid to speak their minds.

"At the beginning of school, when we asked them what they wanted to be, they said things like, 'I want to work at McDonald's' " Friedman said. "Now they say, 'I want to be a doctor' or 'I want to be mayor.' "