Topeka ? If Betty Horton has anything to say about it, Kansas will have many more charter schools in the coming years.

Horton, an education consultant from Topeka, has rounded up family, friends and colleagues to try to start charter schools across the state, and she said she is expecting warfare.

“When you talk about charter schools being developed by African Americans and community people, the school district can get ugly and can do some horrific things,” Horton said.

Horton, her husband, her sister and brother-in-law recently applied for and received grants of $1,995 each from the Kansas Department of Education to provide technical assistance to organizations wanting to start charter schools in the public school system.

In addition, Horton got a handful of other colleagues to get the grants, which originated from federal money, according to the education department.

Horton’s resume includes stints as director of Topeka magnet schools and an assistant research professor at Kansas University. She is now president and chief executive of a new group called the Kansas Assn. of Charter Schools.

Charter schools generally focus on specific populations of students, such as students who are having trouble succeeding in a traditional public school. There are 26 charter schools in Kansas.

Grants questioned

State Board of Education member Sue Gamble, a Republican from Shawnee, has questioned the awarding of the grants, saying those receiving the grants seem to have no connection to school districts.

In Kansas, a charter school cannot get started without approval of the local school board.

Horton said that law needs to be changed. School districts often reject charter petitions, she said, because they feel threatened that the charter school may perform better than the traditional public schools.

Horton said that is what happened to her in 2000 when she and others tried to start a charter school in Topeka.

“All of the African Americans involved in making the petition for the charter school, all of us were fired or called into the administrative offices and were told if you are seen consorting with the enemy that you would be fired, or something bad would happen to your job,” she said.

Topeka school district spokesman Ron Harbaugh denied Horton’s accusation.

“On those charges, it did not happen and is not true,” he said.

And Horton alleged that currently school districts are intimidating teachers where she and her colleagues work with folks to start charters, such as the Wichita school district.

Diane Gjerstad, a spokeswoman for the Wichita district, said there was no intimidation going on, and that she was unaware of who, if anyone, Horton was talking to in Wichita about starting a charter school.

“We have been approached over time by a couple of different groups, but once they get into the minutiae of what it takes to run a school, it becomes a more daunting task than they realized when they first entered into it,” Gjerstad said.

She said Wichita has a long history of responding to community needs for schools with specific themes and has more than 24 magnet schools.

Charter school fights

Earlier this year, Horton, Education Commissioner Bob Corkins and a six-member majority on the State Board of Education pushed for legislation that would allow charter petitioners rejected by local school boards to appeal to the State Board of Education. That legislation was rejected. Many lawmakers and educators say it is key for the petitioning organization and the school board to work together if a charter school is going to succeed.

Gamble also questioned why some of those receiving grants were from out of state, noting that one couple – Horton’s sister, Alice Wyatt, and her husband, Hal Wyatt – listed an address in Georgia.

But Horton said her team is well qualified and includes veteran teachers, principals, a psychologist and community center director. Horton said her sister is an educator and consultant who has relocated to Kansas and soon will be followed by her husband, who has worked with inner city youths.

“Everyone that I asked to apply (for a grant) was selected very carefully. No one walked in off the street,” Horton said.

Horton said her group has worked tirelessly for no pay to assist people wanting to start charter schools. It is her mission in life, she said, to develop schools to help high-risk students succeed.

“In developing charter schools, thousands of dollars have to be racked up in telephone calls. We have spent close to $68,000 from our own pocket,” she said. She said she has worked with groups in Topeka, Kansas City, Kan., Wichita, Olathe and Garden City wanting to start charter schools.

Gamble said that the research on charter schools shows their effectiveness is spotty at best and that Horton and her group are planning a campaign of trying to intimidate local school boards.

“It has absolutely nothing to do with well-thought-out, good policy, and in the end, the people who will pay for this are the children,” Gamble said.

Horton, however, said she will continue to fight for charter schools for the benefit of children. “We, however, cannot be stopped by the politics of oppression. We are formidable in our resolve to have charter schools developed by the community for community boys and girls that no one else has helped,” she said.