Vermilion Parish Superintendent worried about new charter school taking parish students

Vermilion Parish Superintendent Jerome Puyau is worried students from Vermilion Parish will jump ship to a new Type 2 Charter School that will be opening up in the next two years near Youngsville.
Last month the state approved the building of a Type 2 Charter School in Lafayette Parish. The Lafayette School Board voted down the opening of a Type 3 Charter School in Lafayette, but as along the state approved, a Type 2 Charter can open in any school district.
A charter school is a public school operated by a private non-profit or for profit organization under a 5-year contract (or charter) with either the local school for the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE).
Charter schools are free from many of the rules and regulations that traditional public schools are subject to and have significant flexibility in the areas of hiring, budgeting, and instruction.
When a student enrolls at a charter school, the state education department transfers the state’s Minimum Foundation Program (MFP) dollars to the school.
It takes an average of $9,000 a year to educate a child in Louisiana. The state’s MFP funds contributes $4,500 and the local district tax dollars contribute the other $4,500 for the $9,000 total.
According to Puyau, when a student transfers to a Type 2 Charter School, the state will transfer $9,000 of MFP funding to the charter school.
St. Bernard Parish School System is trying to stop the state from taking away so much MFP funding by introducing a resolution that would only let the state take away $4,500 of MFP funding.
Puyau wants Vermilion Parish to do the same by introducing a resolution to the state legislature where the school district has some control when a student wants to transfer to a charter school in another parish.
At last week’s school board meeting, Puyau explained to the school board members that the parish may lose students to the charter school in Youngsville.
While there is no law preventing anyone from leaving the parish to attend a charter school, Puyau wants the school board to approve its own resolution that would allow districts that scored an “A” or “B” to make it tougher for students to attend a charter school in another school district.
The resolution would say if a student attends an “A” - “B” - or “C” school, the student needs the OK from the superintendent to transfer to a charter school.
“If the student wants to go to a charter school because they have an engineering program, I would gladly sign-off on the transfer,” Puyau said.
If the school is a “D” or “F” school, Puyau said the student can transfer without the superintendent’s permission.
If anyone does transfer to a charter school, the parents have to provide transportation to the charter school.