The Chester Upland School District can now count the Chester Community Charter School as an ally in CUSD’s fight to keep its doors open and for an increase to the state’s education budget for Chester.

With that in mind, more than 100 parents of students in Chester boarded a pair of buses on Tuesday to hand deliver petitions signed by more than 1,000 people to Gov. Tom Corbett’s office; the group also sat in on a Senate education committee hearing.

“What we accomplished was obtaining a greater recognition amongst the legislators and the governor’s office of the real role that Chester Community Charter School has in that community,” said Chester Community Charter School spokesman A. Bruce Crawley. “It is unfair to balance the woes of the state budget on the backs of students in Chester.”

Crawley said the parents were “respectful, yet resolute,” when they first met with Corbett’s staff before taking in the Senate hearing. Although Corbett himself was unavailable, Corbett’s staff promised to deliver the petitions and inform the governor of the action by the group of parents.

Count Sen. Anthony Hardy Williams as one of the elected officials supportive of the movement.

“I was impressed and inspired; it bought me to ask questions of the Education Secretary in regard to funding,” said Williams, who sits on the Senate Education Committee. “I am very grateful they showed up, and it’s very important. I am very interested in this matter.”

Lost in the broiling debate between Chester Upland School District and the state over the education budget is that CUSD and the CCCS represent the very same thing: the education of Chester students.

There is no hostility between the two education providers; in fact, both rely on, and need each other, if both are to exist.

“There are people who long believe charter schools take money from the school district, and that is a misperception,” Crawley said. “The reality is, when a kid is no longer in a school district and the parent opts to send him or her to a charter school, the Pennsylvania Department of Education provides funding [for that student] to the charter school.

“Those funds are restricted,” Crawley continued. “Those funds were never intended to be a part of the school district’s budget.”

Crawley said that the school district acts like a conduit for the state to get money to the charter school; it’s that mode of money transfer that sometimes confuses people, Crawley explained, but it is how the laws were drawn up — and doesn’t mean the state is somehow funding charter schools and not the school district, or vice versa.

“We had research done last week. … 40 percent of Chester Upland parents also have a child in the Chester Community Charter School, so these kids are living in the same house,” Crawley said. “The parents don’t want either-or; they want them both to be funded — and for both to provide an excellent education.

“This [friction] is just something that has been created; it’s a fallacy.”

Crawley illuminated his point further by noting that Chester Community Charter School only serves students from kindergarten through eighth grade, and all Chester high school students are generally routed through the CUSD.

“There’s no way for anybody to be against one or the other; we said we want our schools funded — both schools,” Crawley said. “The parents went up there and fought for both.”

Williams, also wanted to clarify the relation among the two schools and the state.

“That’s the whole point: charter schools are public schools, just like magnet schools are,” Williams said. “People need to accept the fact that charter schools are publicly driven, — although they work on a lesser budget — are still proctored the same way. It would be shocking if Chester Upland did only allow funding for certain schools.”

Crawley concurs.

“Even the most hard-hearted elected official can see there’s no viable option other than to provide the funding,” Crawley said. “So we are cautiously optimistic.”

Contact staff writer Damon C. Williams at (215) 893-5745 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .