Published: March 1, 1996

Charter District?

If charter schools are competition to most public school officials, Randy Bos has decided to throw in the towel. The superintendent of the 1,200-student Montabella school district in Edmore, Mich., has recommended that each of the district's five schools become charter schools.

Embracing Michigan's new charter school law, Bos says, will bring site-based management and increased accountability to the rural school system roughly 50 miles northwest of Lansing. "All the research that I've been able to dig into in the last 20 years shows that it works if you can give schools true authority rather than token authority," he says.

In January, the local school board voted 6-1 to pursue the superintendent's idea. The district will not make a final decision on the change until July. If it follows through on the plan, Montabella could become the first school district in the nation to undergo a whole-scale conversion...