SCHOOL'S OUT

The school, whose students are already signed up and come from a variety of racial and economic backgrounds, will be in the old VFW building at Ninth and Speer. But its classrooms will be all over, Brown says.

"The art museum will be our art classroom," he says. "The history museum will be our history classroom. And the public library will be our library. Our students will learn how to use the resources available to them in an urban setting."

Brown describes the approval process as "brutal." However, on this side of the fight, he says he sees the need for charter school proposals to be put to the test.

"I see it as part starting a business," he says, "and part jumping out of an airplane without a parachute. When you jump, you say, `Okay, I don't have a parachute, but I have time to invent one.' There are definitely risks involved.