Two bills were introduced in the Montana state legislature this week to get tax credits for private schools in the state. Phillip Kilgore, director of the charter school program at Hillsdale College, said he has been watching these bills ever since a group in Montana contacted him to discuss setting up a charter school in their area.
Montana is one of eight states in the United States that do not have laws that facilitate the development and administration of charter schools, along with Alabama, Kentucky, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Vermont, and West Virginia. Washington was the most recent state to enact a charter school law in the fall of 2012.
The Barney Charter School Initiative, started in 2009, is Hillsdale’s project to help set up charter schools across the country and implement in them a strong core curriculum. The initiative also supports efforts such as the pair of bills going through the Montana legislature by providing research and resources.
The two Montana bills were introduced on Monday at the beginning of National School Choice Week, an event planned by over 200 nonpartisan individuals and organizations that highlight school choice programs and proposals all over the country.
Kilgore said that whenever he gets an inquiry into starting a charter school, the first thing he suggests is that that person look into the charter school laws in their state.
“I’ve had an inquiry from every state in the union except for maybe ten,” he said.
Kilgore said the inquiries come from a variety of people, and that he gets one or two new contacts every week.
“A lot are parents — parents that look at the situation, the educational options, and say, ‘This is not acceptable. I don’t want to send my kids here.’”
Others are just citizens, maybe even those without children, who see education as essential to their community.
“They don’t have a dog in the fight, so to speak,” he said. “They know education is something that keeps the community sound and healthy.”
Once they are informed about the state charter school laws, Kilgore said he encourages them to learn more about what a classical education is and get together a group of people who aspire to the same educational ideal.
Once Kilgore spends several months in conversation with them, he said, he meets with them personally.
“When it looks like there is seriousness, I want to set up a face-to-face conversation with them,” he said.
After those details are taken care of, the next task is writing and submitting an application to the state showing that the education they are proposing is effective.
“Duh!” Kilgore said, laughing.
Assistant Professor of History Terrence Moore has helped create the curriculum for the charter schools set up by the initiative, a curriculum he developed while helping to establish the Ridgeview Classical Schools in Colorado.
The curriculum for elementary students includes a phonics program from the Riggs Institute and a program from the Core Knowledge Foundation that covers English, history, science, art and music.
The math program utilizes the Singapore Math method, which teaches students not only the math procedures, but also the concepts behind them.
Latin is introduced in sixth grade and is required sixth, seventh, and eighth grade as well as one year in high school.
In high school, the curriculum embraces the great books for English courses. Moore said the emphasis in looking at this literature is on the characters.
“Literature is about stories and stories are about characters, and understanding characters is about understanding human nature,” he said.
For history, government, and economics courses, high school students will look at primary sources. And the sciences and math classes both require students to do proofs, a procedure that is not often taught anymore, Moore said.
The high school curriculum is discussion-based and gives students an opportunity to experience what college classes might be like.
“There’s a reason behind how the curriculum works,” Moore said. “Each one of the things we’ve recommended has not only been tested, but there’s a philosophy behind it.”
Moore emphasized that the charter schools are open to all students.
“There are no entrance requirements,” he said. “All sorts of students come there. It’s not just geniuses or so-called ‘gifted-and-talented.’ It’s kids from the neighborhood whose parents want them to have a good education.”
And Kilgore said that the charter schools that have been built through the initiative are filling up fast.
“If you build it, they will come,” he said. “There’s a market.”