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SACRAMENTO — The state school board approved two very different charter schools on Wednesday – an urban military academy backed by Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown and Gov. Gray Davis, and a basics elementary sought by parents in the high desert of Kern County. 

Both were approved by 6-0 votes, the Oakland military school after a 90-minute hearing featuring rare testimony by Davis and an overflow crowd of backers and opponents, some of whom called the proposal racist. 

The two new schools are the first actually chartered by the state under a 1999 law allowing proponents rejected by local school boards to seek a charter from the state. 

The previous 348 schools were approved by local or county school boards since the original charter school law was passed in 1993. 

Charter schools are public schools that operate largely free of the complex education code and use a variety of methods to try to improve student achievement. 

Former governor Brown got help from his former chief of staff Davis, who told the board his own private military school experience taught him character, discipline and responsibility. 

“I’m not saying military schools are good for everyone,” Davis said. “I’m saying they’re good for some people.” 

The Oakland Military Institute will be a partnership between the mayor’s office and the California National Guard. It will eventually have 972 students in grades seven through 12, but will open this summer with 162 seventh-graders, Brown said. 

Students will wear uniforms, attend a two-week summer camp and have classes on Saturdays. The goal, said Brown, is prepare each graduate to attend the best colleges. 

Brown’s proposal was rejected in June by the Oakland Unified School District and in September by the Alameda County Board of Education. 

Opponents said the school would drain resources from the other troubled public schools in Oakland, which is heavily minority. Others objected to its military nature. 

The school, in addition to the state funding it will receive as a public school, already has $1.3 million from the state that Davis put in this year’s budget plus $2 million in federal funds.  

While potentially drawing from beyond Oakland and Alameda, most of the students would likely come from inside the districts, bringing a net loss in per-pupil state funding. 

Brown says he will seek private funds if necessary to make the school a success, noting that both he and Davis are formidable political fund raisers. 

“We’ve got powerful people here who are committed and we’re going to make it happen,” he said. 

Opponent Wilson Riles Jr., a former Oakland City Council member and son of the late former state schools superintendent, said the charter school would not help solve the real problems in the other schools. 

“We don’t need another disaster in Oakland,” he said. 

The Rev. T.C. Wilson Jr. said the school was not sponsored by “the community,” although Brown has support from several other black pastors. 

“This is a new form of racism that’s coming through,” Wilson said. 

“Why not try to get money to make all of our schools better?” asked parent and grandparent Gwen Hardy. “We do not want a military school. What we want is moneys to go into our schools and improve the schools we already have.” 

Brown said his charter school would help improve other schools. 

“With just a bit of competition, just a little bit, maybe 10 percent of the students moving into excellent charter schools, I believe the effect on the entire school system will be a renewed call to excellence,” he said. 

By contrast, approval of the Ridgecrest Charter School in the northeast corner of Kern County took only minutes. 

Its backers, a group of Ridgecrest parents unhappy with the public schools in their Sierra Sands Unified School District, had their public hearing in September and were told to make some changes in their proposal. 

They have been working on their school for nearly two years. Three of them have since been elected to the Sierra Sands board, but do not have the majority needed to get their school approved locally. 

They whooped with joy as they left the board meeting room. Now they must find a building to open their kindergarten-through-eighth-grade school emphasizing reading and math basics by next September. 

“I’m elated, ecstatic,” said grinning parent Terri VarnHagen. 

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CHARTER SCHOOL SPECIFICS 

• WHAT ARE CHARTER SCHOOLS: Public schools created by parents, teachers or community members that operate free of much of the state Education Code. The 348 in existence were approved by local or county school boards. A 1999 law allows backers who are turned down by local boards to ask the state Board of Education to grant the charter. 

• OAKLAND MILITARY INSTITUTE: Charter No. 349, backed by Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown in partnership with the California National Guard. It will have 972 students in grades seven through 12. Students will wear uniforms and attend summer camp and Saturday classes. The goal is to have all students pass the high school exit exam, score at least 1200 on the college-entrance test and qualify for admission to state universities. 

• RIDGECREST CHARTER SCHOOL: Charter No. 350, backed by a group of parents in Ridgecrest in northeastern Kern County. It will be run by School Futures Research Foundation, a San Diego-based nonprofit that operates eight other California charter schools. It will emphasize basics, use phonics to teach reading, teach Spanish in all grades and have longer school days and years than regular schools. It will have 200 to 300 children in kindergarten through eighth grade, expanding to high school in future years. 

• CONDITIONS: The board required both charter schools before opening to provide proof of liability insurance, contract with a school agency for needed special education services and contract with an outside agency to monitor the school’s progress. The charters are for three years, starting with opening day. 

On the Net: Read about charter schools at 

http://www.cde.ca.gov/charter