Laws & Legislation
COMING SOON:
13th edition of CER’s charter law rankings and scorecard, “2012: Charter School Laws Across The States”
Charter School Law
Before you can have charter schools, you must have a state law. Forty-two states and the District of Columbia have enacted charter school laws. (The nine states that do not have charter school laws are Alabama, Kentucky, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Vermont, Washington and West Virginia.) Maine passed their first charter school law in the summer of 2011.
As is the case with most education laws, charter schools are born at the state level. Typically a group of concerned lawmakers drafts a bill that allows the creation of any number of charter schools throughout a state. The content of the charter law plays a large role in the relative success or failure of the charter schools that open within that state. CER has identified a number of factors that can work together to create an environment that promotes the growth and expansion of charter schools. Some of them are identified below.
- Number of Schools & Applications: The best charter laws do not limit the number of charter schools that can operate throughout the state. They do not place restrictions on the brand new schools either. A poorly written law would only allow conversion schools to operate but this hinders parents’ ability to choose from among numerous public schools. These laws should also allow many different types of groups to apply to open schools.
- Multiple Charter Authorizers: States that permit a number of entities to authorize charter schools, or provide applicants with a binding appeals process, encourage more activity than those that vest authorizing power in a single entity, particularly if that entity is the local school board. The goal is to give parents the most options and having multiple sponsors helps reach this goal. For more information on why multiple authorizers are important, please go here.
- Waivers & Legal Autonomy: A good charter law is one that automatically exempts charter schools from most of the school district’s laws and regulations. Of course no charter school is exempt from the most fundamental laws concerning civil rights. These waivers
- Full Funding & Fiscal Autonomy: A charter school needs have control of its own finances to run efficiently. Only the charter school’s operators know the best way to spend funds and the charter law should reflect this need. Similarly charter schools, as public schools, are entitled to receive the same amount of funds as all other conventional public schools. Many states and districts withhold money from individual charter schools due to fees and “administrative costs” but the best laws provide full funding for all public schools.
Home Page for Charter School Law Data: http://charterschoolresearch.com/
Press Release for 2011 Charter School Law Rankings:
Stakes are High for New State Lawmakers to Improve Education Laws
2011 Charter School Laws From Across the States Rankings
2011 Charter School Laws: Full Report
Next Generation Charter Schools Act
The following model charter school legislation was adopted by the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), based on CER’s recommendations.
Next Generation Charter Schools Act
How Are Charter Schools Funded?
Charter schools are public schools. Like district public schools, they are funded according to enrollment (also called average daily attendance, or ADA), and receive funding from the district and the state according to the number of students attending. The ways and amounts at which charters are funded compared to their district counterparts differ dramatically in an individual state and even in individual communities within a state. Nationwide, on average, charter schools are funded at 61 percent of their district counterparts, averaging $6,585 per pupil compared to $10,771 per pupil at conventional district public schools. For more information and state-by-state funding comparisons, go to Following the Money.
Unlike traditional district schools, most charter schools do not receive funding to cover the cost of securing a facility. Conversion schools begin with established capital, namely the school and its facilities. A few states provide capital funding to start-up schools, and some start-up schools are able to take over available unused district space, but most must rely on other, independent means. Recent federal legislation provides funding to help charters with start-up costs, but the task remains imposing.
Maryland’s weak charter law fails to achieve more funding: The federal government’s denial of critical charter school funds is a black mark on the Maryland’s effort to create great education for all. Maryland’s weak charter laws and low achievement scores certainly challenge the “We’re number one” mantra. Read what Jeanne Allen has to say.
School Choice Law
Are Choice Scholarships Programs Constitutional?
The strongest critics of choice scholarship programs claim that if dollars are used for religiously affiliated schools then they violate the First Amendment (establishment of religion). The First Amendment provides freedom of religion, not freedom from religion. Choice scholarship programs let parents choose where to direct their children’s education funds. The state is not imposing religion upon its citizens (which was a concern of the Founding Fathers), nor does the choice of religious education substantiate federal funding or religious institutions. As Clint Bolick, Director of the Scharf-Norton Center for Constitutional Litigation at the Goldwater Institute observes: all credible contemporary school choice proposals are constitutional.
[Contemporary school choice programs] do not propose subsidizing religious schools, but merely include such schools within the range of educational options made available to a neutrally defined category of beneficiaries (usually economically disadvantaged families). No public funds are transmitted to religious schools except by the independent decisions of third parties. As the U.S. Supreme Court repeatedly has affirmed, such “attenuated financial benefit[s], ultimately controlled by the private choices of individual[s]“…are simply not within the contemplation of the Establishment Clause’s broad prohibition.
In 2002, the Historic_Victory_for_School_Choice_and_Children.
Legal Summary of US Supreme Court Decision in Zelman v. Simmons Harris
Existing School Choice Programs
