Charter School Faces Criticism For Plans To Hire Non-District Teachers

In the wake of protests against Gov. Scott Walker’s Budget Repair bill, Madison Preparatory Academy, an all-male charter school slated to open in 2013, once again finds itself having to defend against concerned critics who question its decision to hire non-district, non-union teachers.

Proposed by the Urban League of Greater Madison (ULGM) last December, the school hopes to bridge the achievement gap by preparing young men of color in the Madison school district for college.

Given its all-male focus, the proposed charter school has raised questions in the Madison educational community, and has even been publicly criticized by the ACLU.

As the proposal makes its way to the Department of Public Instruction (DPI), Madison Prep faces its newest challenge—convincing the DPI and the Madison community of its need to hire non-district, non-union teachers.

“The union cause is a need,” said School Board member, Marjorie Passman, who is concerned that the proposal comes as another blow to teachers anticipating impending budget cuts. “Unions do it for the teacher’s sakes, so they get decent salaries and decent benefits. It took a long time for teachers to get their rights, especially female teachers.”

But for Laura DeRoche-Perez, ULGM’s Charter School Development Consultant, hiring non-district teachers is essential to maintaining the school’s autonomy and flexibility.

For one thing, teachers at Madison Prep will be expected to work long hours. Madison Prep will have an extended school day and school year. School days will run from 8am until 5pm, and the school year will begin a week earlier and end a week later than Wisconsin’s public schools. The proposal also stipulates an additional summer session in July.

DeRoche-Perez believes that extended school time is necessary to prepare the students, many of whom will be behind in math and reading, for college.

“Especially in those first 3 years, we’re going to encounter challenges, problems, difficulties that we can’t even imagine right now,” DeRoche-Perez said. “So to have as much flexibility as possible is how we think that the students will be best served.”

Moreover, DeRoche-Perez suggests that hiring non-district teachers, will allow the school to keep its costs down.

By using non-district teachers, Madison Prep will be able to pay their teachers and staff an average salary of $67,802 in its first year of operation, compared to Madison Metropolitan School District’s average salary estimate of $81,312 for the 2010-2011 school year.

For critics like Passman, these discrepancies in salary are cause for worry.

“[The salary] is not a little bit lower for teachers. It’s a lot lower,” Passman said. “I just believe that when you’re unionized you have more of a say.”

If the DPI decides to fund Madison Prep, ULGM will then work with the Madison school district to draft a contract that will make Madison Prepatory Academy an official school.

“We plan to have it voted on sometime next fall,” DeRoche-Perez says about the contract.

Madison Teachers Inc., the collective bargaining unit for Madison teachers could not be reached for comment.