By Barbara Smith
Utah County parents will soon have an alternative to high school for their children.
Martin Kokol, assistant professor of teacher education, is proposing to found a charter high school for Utah Valley.
Kokol said he is trying to serve students in the community who are gifted and talented or want to be included in that group by providing a progressive core curriculum.
He said he is also focusing on giving parents a choice. He is proposing two different school times to match parents'' schedules and also a tri-semester school year.
'Charters are helping to fulfill parental choice options,' said Dave Steele, coordinator of program development and support services for the Utah State Office of Education.
Kokol said he is developing an idea of team teaching in which students will be invited to participate in a dialogue instead of responding to a monologue.
'What I have proposed is to offer one of several school districts -- the idea of building a charter high school that would really zero in on the needs of the gifted and talented and others who want to join gifted and talented students for a very different program,' Kokol said.
Kokol''s school will consist of a target of 500 students between ninth and 12th grades. It will provide interdisciplinary courses and offer the International Baccalaureate program instead of the Advanced Placement program.
He is proposing the plan to school boards between Southern Salt Lake County and Northern Utah County. Since charter schools are public schools, a school board would have to approve the school opening in their district.
'You''ve got to give charters a chance to prove themselves,' Kokol said.
Kokol said some of the problems he is facing in starting a charter high school is that the state is only giving partial funding for the school, educating high school students per capita requires more funding than elementary schools, and it will not pay for a site to house the school.
He said he has found, through speaking with an educator at the state level, that the state funds public schools with $4,600 per student and only $2,100 per student to charter schools.
Steele said the reason why charter schools are not giving as much funding as other public schools is because charter schools do not provide public transportation and have other specialized costs.
'I believe public schools are the best investments,' said Merrell Hansen, professor of teacher education.
Hansen said even though charter schools have good potential and are a good alternative, they might prove to be unsatisfactory.
He said while public schools will accept everyone regardless of race, religion or disability, he is unsure of what type of students charter schools will accept.
'Will they accept all children?' Hansen said.