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Parent's choice, Private Schools, and Maine Law (730 words)
From the Sun Journal to the Boston Globe to the Miami Herald, why all the media about our Lewiston private school? Because resourceful high school seniors in Florida found a way to avoid exit exams by transferring their credits to our Maine high school. Maine families can learn a lesson from this.
As flattered as we are, when news travels, the issues can become clouded. So, as the founder and administrator of the school, please allow me set the perspective.
Five things should be cited.
1. The North Atlantic Regional High School (NARHS) has been a state-authorized, state-recognized private school for 15 years. Our status is validated and verified every year by a letter from the Maine Department of Education?s School Approval Office. The letter and the law identify the 201 private schools similar to ours as a ?school providing equivalent instruction.? We are legal. We are equivalent. In addition, our school is fully accredited by the National Private Schools Association.
2. NARHS is a truly private school because we receive NO public funds. As truly private, our standards are adopted by our team of 12 certified teachers and administrators. A 1983 US Federal Court decision issued in Bangor, Maine, forbids the Maine Department of Education from interfering in the credits, teachers, curriculum, and detailed operations of private schools in Maine. (Bangor Baptist Church v. Maine, 576 F. Supp.1299 (D.Me.1983). Without beaurocratic or governmental interference, NARHS graduates have gone to Julliard, Harvard, West Point, Penn State, Cornell, and hundreds of other well-known colleges and universities.
3. Last fall, the Haitian Refugee Center in Miami approached NARHS and asked if we could help their high school students. These students had earned all of the necessary graduation credits from their local public high school; but they could not pass one reading portion of the mandatory Florida exit exams (FCAT). In Florida, if the student cannot pass all of the FCAT sections, they are denied a high school diploma, regardless of how many credits they have. These particular students had come from Haiti 2 to 4 years ago as legal refugees. English was their third language, and they failed one English comprehension portion of the FCAT.
NARHS administrators flew to Miami to review the situation, and found that most of these students had GPA?s over 3.0 and had far exceeded Maine?s graduation requirements. Therefore, the students simply registered with NARHS, transferred their public school credits, and 77 of them were awarded the high school diploma each had earned. Many of them went immediately into local colleges in Miami.
4. Education officials in Florida are not pleased that students have found a way to avoid Florida's FCAT exit exam requirements. But, since Maine does not yet require exit exams, the students who applied and fulfilled the Maine graduation requirements had earned their diplomas. Maine education officials may be a bit nervous about this. Because in 2007, Maine public schools will also require a successful exit exam score to earn a high school diploma. Students must pass every section of this one test, or they will not get a diploma -- regardless of how may credits they have. But, even in 2007, private schools will not be required to adopt this additional standard. Maine private schools will still be allowed to issue valid, legal diplomas to any student who has earned the required number of credits. No exit exams can be required in truly private schools or of homeschoolers. That gives parents and students another route, another choice. Maine education officials know it. They seem to be displeased that we know it, too.
5. This is a CHOICE issue. High school credits earned belong to the students. Students own their credits and can use them at any school that will accept them, including out of state schools. This has always been the practice of transferring credits between schools. If families do not like what is going on in public school, they can move their students (and their credits) to a private school.
Why all the media attention for our little Lewiston private school? Resourceful students have found a way to avoid single-test, high-stakes exit exams by transferring to our Maine high school. It?s simple. It?s legal. It?s clear. It?s their choice.
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