One issue that should be considered is funding, Butler said.

“We have private schools that already exist, and (the students there) will have the option to come to the charter school,” Butler said. “When you talk about the monies that are in the public school system, we always say, ‘The money is going to follow the child to the charter school.’ But if that child is coming from the private school system, there was never money to follow that child — where is that money going to come from?

“We need to be very, very careful with such limited dollars. We need to be careful about the decisions we make.”

NASB President Wayne Barnett said it was clear to him where that money would come from — from the public schools, which will likely result in a local tax increase.

“If we lose 100 students, we still have same overhead we had before they left, still the same debt before they left,” Barnett said.

“It’s going to be an increase in taxes at the local level because the state — they’re good politicians and (say) ‘we don’t raise taxes, we just tell the local people what to do and the local people have to raise taxes,’ Barnett said.

“It’s not fair.”

Butler said he believes some sort of charter school legislation is going to pass, but that he would like to see it include language that focuses on already extant locally-funded schools. Overlooking obvious opportunities could end up costing the state money, he said.

“High performing school districts are not interested in charter schools,” he said. “If you have a low performing school district in a county and a high performing school district, take the best practices of your best performing school and try them at your low performing schools first — somebody ought to be looking at these best performing schools and see what they are doing.”

NASB member Thelma Newsome, who said she is against the idea of charter schools, agreed that public schools are the best option for non-private schools.

“I still think public schools have always been the best; you get the bang for your dollar with public education,” Newsome said.

Barnett and Newsome also agreed that the local level should have oversight of charter schools if they do come to Adams County, though the Senate bill gives that authority to a state board.

Additionally, Barnett said charter schools could take not only money from public schools, but take supportive families too. Barnett said it is his understanding that charter schools “cherry pick” the students they want to attend, and with the student often goes the support of good parents.

Newsome said it makes sense that the parents who are dissatisfied with public schools would be the ones who care about their child’s education.

“Nine out of 10 times (the parents of children who switch to charter schools will be those parents who have been very supportive of public education, so when they move their children, their support moves along with them,” Newsome said.

Barnett said parents who do not care about their child’s education will likely not make the effort to send them to a charter school, and the public schools are obligated to educate those children too.

“We can pay the price (for that child) by building (the child) up in school or by building up additional prisons,” Barnett said.

If charter schools are not implemented with local control, Barnett said he fears the legislature will bankrupt the local government or cause large tax increases.

Newsome said the focus should be on improving the existing public schools.

“Our schools right now are scraping for dollars,” Newsome said.

“If we have to contend with charter schools, that’s just going to put us in another bind.”