What was once an abandoned school campus is now being called home by pint-sized Texas Longhorns, UCLA Bruins and Miami Hurricanes.
More than 900 Inland Empire students, clad in T-shirts bearing major colleges' insignia, were busy learning on Friday at the Chino-based Oxford Preparatory Academy, a charter school that opened last September.
"This is a good example of the type of options Inland Empire parents are looking for," said Steven Holguin, California Charter School Association's senior manager of school development. "It's the culture they create, excellence for everyone and no excuses."
As cash-strapped school districts lay off teachers and close campuses, publicly funded charter schools like OPA are flourishing and altering the landscape of public education.
"No doubt, (charters have) become an option for parents that will stick around for some time," said Jason Watts, the academy's director of educational services. "We are confident that what we do works."
The academy is leasing the site of what once was Rancho Elementary School. Its program is similar to that offered at Chino Valley Unified School District's Edwin Rhodes Elementary School, but staff at OPA have "more flexibility and less bureaucracy" to deal with, Watts said. "We have no reason, no excuse not to succeed."
Charter schools typically receive a mixture of public and private money and operate free of many regulations that govern traditional public schools in exchange for achieving promised results.
"We are filling a need in the community that does not exist in district schools because art has been cut" at district schools, said Lucille Berger, an executive director of the School of Arts and Enterprise, a Pomona-based charter school that opened eight years ago.
Nationwide, less than 4 percent of public school students are enrolled in charters, but that number is expected to rise significantly because of increased financial and political support.
More than a dozen states, including California, have loosened restrictions on charters over the past year for a chance to win a share of the federal $4.3 billion Race to the Top school reform competition.
The number of charter schools grew by 6.7 percent to 4,936 in 2009-2010 and is projected to increase by 7.5 percent in the current school year, according to the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools.
California saw a 15 percent increase in 2009-10, with 115 new campuses opening despite budget woes that led to mass teacher layoffs and shuttered traditional schools, according to the CCSA.
In San Bernardino and Riverside counties nine charter schools opened in 2010, bringing the total to 54.
"Three years ago we had 27," Holguin said. "The demand for charter schools has grown astronomically."
Although most district schools can say they follow the same motto OPA has embraced, they struggle with getting everyone on board, Holguin said.
"It's hard to get everyone to buy in," he said. "At a charter parents and students make a commitment, they chose to come here."
Many charter schools are boosting the academic achievement of disadvantaged students, but critics say charters siphon students and resources away from traditional public schools, result in greater racial segregation, block access to certain groups of students, and operate without proper oversight.
A 2009 study by Stanford University found that only 17 percent of charter schools performed significantly better than traditional public schools while 37 percent performed worse and 46 percent showed no big difference.
In the Inland Empire more than 60 percent of charter schools are preforming "very effectively," according to Holguin. "Others did not have time to prove themselves just yet," he said. "It takes a couple of years to create a school culture, to show signs of success."
Charter schools are growing most rapidly in urban districts with struggling schools and large numbers of poor, minority students.
The charter school movement is receiving its biggest support from President Barack Obama's administration, wealthy donors such as Bill Gates and Oprah Winfrey, and the highly publicized documentary "Waiting for Superman."
"We've seen a significant support from federal government, but that embracing of charters has not trickled down to local schools," Holguin said. "Some districts have improved their charter petition process and have become very effective. But there is still a number of school districts that make it more difficult to open a charter school."
Some demand a higher level of accountability, a requirement Holguin's organization fully supports.
"But some are acting out of fear of losing more students and with that the average daily attendance dollars, because the district money follows the child," he said.
"A fear of budget impact is not one of the reasons you can legally deny a charter school."
Among other challenges charter schools are facing in near future is the training of those who are trying to start new schools, Holguin said.
"We wanted them to be aware of the challenges," he said. "Having a great passion is not enough. You need a wide breadth of experience to be a charter leader."
The other challenge is funding.
Holguin estimates that 5 percent of California students attend charter schools.
Gov. Jerry Brown's proposed spending plan, which assumes voters will approve a $12 billion extension of existing temporary taxes in a June election, will leave charter spending the same as last year.
But if the taxes are not renewed, school districts and charter schools alike stand to lose 7 percent of their per-student funding, Holguin said.
"The administrators will have to make difficult decisions when it comes to spending their money," he said. "But it will not be as challenging as district schools because their funds are restricted and already earmarked."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
mediha.dimartino@inlandnewspapers.com
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