Here's your chance to become educated in charter schools

For more than a decade, groups determined to offer students and parents more educational flexibility have tried to bring a charter school to Beaufort County.

That's a good thing. But getting a charter school off the ground takes more than determination; it takes financial backing and proper organization.

The push started in 1997, when Lighthouse Charter School failed to produce a school on Hilton Head Island. In 2006, the controversial St. Helena Gullah International Academy, backed by Imagine Schools and granted a state charter, missed several deadlines — including not having a building a month before it was slated to open — and since withered.

The third time might be a charm from the latest surge, a well-organized, and possibly, well-financed group calling its facility Riverview Charter School, which wants to open next year.

Plans call for a 228-student facility that would accommodate kindergarten-through-fifth-grade students and grow to include those through the eighth grade. The school's site would be in Burton as its organizers are primarily Habersham residents.

An application first must be approved by either by the local school board or the S.C. Public Charter School District's board of trustees.

Charter schools are paid for with public tax dollars and are free of state and federal regulations, allowing residents and educators to create their own curriculums and teaching methods. They are, however, subject to the state and federal accountability measures that our public schools face. If they fail to meet those standards, their funding could be yanked.

As it stands, Riverview could receive up to $420,000 in federal money if the application is approved. The group won a $5,000 planning grant from the S.C. Department of Education to pay for state charter school training, promote the school and hire educators to create a curriculum and instruction plans.

Where the former charter school attempts failed, Riverview hopes to succeed, and it's taking a step in the right direction by asking the public to get involved. Its organizers have slated a series of countywide community meetings to gauge support and inform those residents interested in the charter school.

Charter school opponents argue that the schools rob the public of their tax dollars and force them to "give up" on the idea of public education.

But parents don't always see it that way, especially when their child faces a sub-par school or school system — or they simply want an alternative education for their children.

Riverview says it wants to "provide a small, nurturing setting that actively engages students in authentic, meaningful and integrated learning experiences. To create an academic environment that is both joyful and rigorous, providing students with diverse experience-based opportunities to demonstrate and strengthen their individual intelligence and become personally, socially and globally responsible citizens."

Whether residents are for or against the idea, it would behoove them to get the facts before making a decision to support or not support the charter school.

After all, if it takes a village to raise a child, it at least takes that much more to build a school.

Get the facts n 10:30 a.m. April 5, Burton Wells Park, 64 Burton Wells Road

n 6 p.m. April 8, second floor of the Wachovia bank building, 1102 Bay St.

n Noon April 14, Port Royal Town Council chambers, 700 Paris Ave.

n 3 p.m. April 19, Lady’s Island (TBA)

n 6 p.m. April 24, Bluffton Library, 120 Palmetto Way