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Video transcript appears below. To read an article about the South Arbor Academy lottery, click here.
On a mild spring afternoon, hundreds of cars line up outside
South Arbor Charter
Academy in Ypsilanti to
take kids home for the day.
Inside the school, dozens of parents will find out if they
can perform the same after-school ritual with their own kids next year.
Carmen Foster said:
"It has a very good reputation. We know a lot of people who send their kids
here, and they really like it."
"I know how much I love NHA and love this building," said Michelle
Buchanan. "Especially — I worked here five years ago."
Tiffany Dorsey said: "I have my heart set here. So I'm going
out on a limb, and I'm going out on faith!"
Each year, this charter school, affiliated with National
Heritage Academies, gets more applicants than openings. So like at many charter
schools around the country, a public lottery held in the spring determines who
will fill the available seats in the fall. The procedure is carefully carried out with
the help of a third-party person who draws names.
There are 556 applicants vying for just 26 openings for the upcoming
school year.
That many students would be enough to open a whole new
school, but that won't happen, because Michigan
law effectively limits the number of charter schools in the state.
This is the second time around for Tameka
Lewis. Her fifth- and sixth-grade daughters were selected in last year's
lottery.
"That was exciting!" Lewis said. "It was like — I always
equate it to like Willy Wonka and the golden ticket. That's how I felt. You
know? Like I had the golden ticket. And when the girls found out, they were
ecstatic."
Tameka hopes her luck continues this year with twin kindergartners
and a second-grade son.
"And I've had him on the waiting list for the entire year in
hopes that he would get in," Lewis said. "I'm just like, keeping my fingers
crossed that my second-grader gets in; we'll see what happens."
South Arbor Academy opened in fall of 1999, centered around
four pillars of education, the first being academic excellence — as
demonstrated by the school's standardized test scores, which were the 7th
highest in the entire state in 2009.
Beyond academics, the school promotes parental partnerships,
student accountability and moral focus.
"They have a strong emphasis on moral issues, like respect,"
Foster said.
Lewis said: "And the principles they teach here are
wonderful — wonderful."
"The curriculum, the parent involvement, the moral focus — I
mean, it's what I want for my kids," Buchanan said.
And as it turns out, it's what Michelle
will get for her kids.
"And after four wait lists, I just wasn't sure it was going
to happen," Buchanan said, "and this — I really want them to be in an NHA
school, and so [this] took my breath away, as you could tell in there."
Tameka and Tiffany
also have the luck of the draw.
But as the numbers are drawn and names are read, Carmen finds out her son, like 12,000 other charter
school hopefuls in Michigan
this year, will have to settle for the waiting list.
Carmen may be disappointed, but not discouraged.
"We also applied at other charter schools in the Canton area,"
Foster said. "So those are other possibilities."
While Carmen Foster's car may not be among them this time
around, South Arbor Academy can be assured of a full parking lot — and
classrooms — once again next year.
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Kathy Hoekstra is a communications specialist at the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, Lorie Shane is the managing editor of the Mackinac Center's Michigan Education Report and Michael Van Beek is education policy director at the Mackinac Center. The Mackinac Center
for Public Policy is a research and educational institute headquartered in
Midland, Mich. Permission to reprint in whole or in part is hereby
granted, provided that the author and the Center are properly cited.
