A parents advocacy group will ask the Buffalo School Board on Wednesday to give parents more time to transfer students from failing public schools into ones with better academic standing.
Sunday was the deadline to have applications postmarked, but the extension is being sought since parents didn't receive written notification until last week, said Samuel L. Radford III, president of the Parent District Coordinating Council. An error on the application form also failed to alert parents that their child could be eligible to transfer into a criteria-based school.
The district, Radford said, did offer the required 14-day notification through its website and a phone call that went to students' homes. About 300 parents applied for a transfer the past two years, Radford said.
Radford said the School Board also needs to begin looking at placing students attending chronically underachieving schools into empty seats at high-performing private and charter schools.
"We should look at where all the seats in good standing in Western New York are, and how many of those seats are open," Radford said. "We should come up with a process that puts the students' needs first and doesn't condemn a generation to go to failing schools that have been failing year after year."
Last month, State Sen. Mark Grisanti, R-Buffalo, introduced legislation that would let 300 eligible Buffalo students entering either kindergarten or ninth grade receive vouchers for up to $10,000 per year to attend a private, nonpublic or suburban school. The cost would be paid through state school aid.
Grisanti cited Buffalo's 50 percent graduation rate, of which only 15 percent are considered college-ready, and the even lower 31 percent graduation rate for black males.
"Education is the No. 1 problem in the City of Buffalo, even though we spend more than any other city in New York per student," Grisanti, who is running for reelection, said at the time. "People with young children state the poor schools as the main factor when they choose to move out or not move to the city. With only a 50 percent graduation rate, something needs to change."
Low-income families would be eligible for a voucher if their earnings were 1.75 times the federal poverty level - or $39,000 for a family of four.
Radford, however, said using vouchers to benefit 300 students was an inadequate response for a school district with 26,000 students in "failing schools."
"I think it's good that he's initiated the conversation, but the solution he's given affects too few people and is too simplistic for a very complex issue," Radford said.
He said a clause in No Child Left Behind legislation offers another solution by allowing school districts to transfer payments to a private, charter or suburban school if the district does not have enough seats in schools of good standing.
"It wouldn't cost more to send them to a suburban district or private school, and it would probably cost less to send them to a charter school," Radford said.
"This is not a money issue," he said. "What it would cost is jobs in the public school system, secure jobs in failing schools. That is the issue."

email: msommer@buffnews.com