CER Press Release
Washington, D.C.
October 15, 2012

“Amendments to Pennsylvania’s charter school law, negotiated in recent days and awaiting legislative approval, would be a serious setback for charter school educators, leaders and parents.

“SB 1115, a bill originally designed to improve and expand quality charter schools, now gives the Pennsylvania Department of Education (PDE), new, expanded powers over charter school finances and outcomes. Such a role for a state education department is unprecedented in states with strong charter laws. Pennsylvania charter schools are already held to the same standards as all other public schools yet they are accountable to their authorizers for meeting legal and financial requirements and performance milestones. When authorizers fail, it is time to reform the authorizing process, not give the PDE, which is already burdened by its current oversight duties, more regulatory power over schools that should be managed by better authorizers. Pennsylvania’s charter school law isn’t lacking in public accountability; it is lacking in the existence of strong authorizers.

“Yet authorizers in Pennsylvania — school districts — are often no better at managing charter schools than they are at managing traditional public schools. The issue facing lawmakers who are seeking to improve chartering is not to demand more state education agency oversight, but to create multiple authorizers. Multiple and independent authorizers which are the key to highly successful charter schools in 15 states have little oversight from their states’ education departments and give charter school parents and educators freedom from traditional bureaucracy to achieve performance successes that hamper success in too many traditional public schools. History and research have proven that strong authorizers serve the public good by fostering the creation of great public charter schools that serve children in need of options. Such charters are held to the highest financial and academic accountability requirements. Just today the Center released a model for states, The Essential Guide to Charter School Law: Model Legislation based on Experience and Practice, which provides a guidepost for lawmakers about how to make the connection between sound, independent authorizing and quality schools.

“The original charter reform proposal sponsored by Senators Anthony Hardy Williams (D-Philadelphia) and Jeffrey Piccola (R-Harrisburg) followed such practices, and by permitting state universities to authorize charter schools, would have put in motion the right formula for attacking issues that have arisen from bad school district authorizing.

“Instead of pursuing that course, some pro-charter groups believe that the current bill suits their needs, and that more oversight from the Pennsylvania Department of Education will somehow breed performance accountability, when we know that no school entity — not Harrisburg, not Philadelphia, not Pittsburgh and not a charter school — will deliver high academic performance just because they are told to do so.

“High-level legislative sources report that the Pennsylvania Education Association, the state’s teachers union which opposes the creation of independent, publicly accountable charter schools, is quietly voicing its support for the bill, as is the Pennsylvania School Boards Association.

“Education Voters of Pennsylvania, a group that similarly opposes reforms out of the traditional system, posted this on their website today urging citizens to implement the proposal currently pending consideration. The group has argued that charters are funded unfairly (eg. they get local funds) and is opposed to additional authorizers that are known to breed quality charter schools. Says the group, ‘Tell your legislators that Pennsylvanians deserve a charter reform bill that implements critical funding reform and DOES NOT includes [sic] provisions for a statewide authorizer.’

“These endorsements, if nothing else, should give supporters pause.

“As the nation’s oldest and leading education reform group supporting the development of high quality and plentiful public charter schools, and having been at the front lines of the fight for the initial law, as well as working on improvements to that law over time, we respectfully urge Pennsylvania legislators to defer consideration on charter law amendments until they can fully understand the magnitude and impact of the proposed changes and are willing to bring real reforms that include multiple, independent, accountable authorizers to the charter table.”

Press Release
Download or print your PDF copy of The Essential Guide to Charter School Lawmaking: Model Legislation for States Grounded in Experience and Practice

Great Hearts Academies’ decision to pull out of Tennessee until state law creates an impartial charter school approval process is setting the stage for a legislative battle over who will grant approvals in the future.

After the Metro Nashville school board denied a charter to Great Hearts for the third time, the Arizona-based charter school company released a statement Wednesday saying it was withdrawing from the state.

However, Great Hearts said it might apply for a charter “when Tennessee’s laws and charter approval process more effectively provide for open enrollment, broad service to the community and impartial authorizers.”

The idea of creating a state agency to grant charters has been discussed in Tennessee and elsewhere. The Tennessee Charter School Association is researching methods used in other states to take politics out of the conversation.

“Every application should not be a brand-new political discussion,” said Matt Throckmorton, association executive director. “It is the children of Nashville that lose out to adult problems, again.”

Throckmorton called the state charter school law “flawed” and hopes to find a system that will allow charter applicants to work with local boards of education during the application process, but will not allow politics to affect the decision. That model will probably find its way into the association’s legislative agenda for January, he said.

“We are going to have charter schools — the law has been written,” he said.

Metro Nashville board members don’t consider their decisions to deny a charter to Great Hearts three times to be political. They have said the main issue was whether the school would cater to an affluent, largely white population or work to create a more diverse student body by providing transportation to students from other areas of the city.

Great Hearts, on the other hand, believes politics was the deciding issue because it claims to have a diversity plan that meets or exceeds Metro’s own plan.

Great Hearts accused the Metro school board of violating the law in its denial of a charter and said “we are hopeful that the state will take action so that, in the future, Great Hearts can reapply to a different, impartial charter authorizer.”

The school board’s vote on Tuesday defied an order by the state Board of Education directing that the charter application be approved. Great Hearts had appealed to the state after being denied twice by Metro.

Great Hearts said the “hostile” nature of the school board would make a successful school opening impossible even if a charter were granted at this point.

Mayor Karl Dean, a charter schools supporter, described the decision as “a sad day for the children of Nashville who would have benefited from the high-quality education Great Hearts was ready to offer.”

Local control
Newly installed Metro school board members Amy Frogge and Jill Speering voted differently on Great Hearts — Speering in favor and Frogge against — but both said they oppose removing charter school decisions from local school boards.

A new charter-approval group would be answerable to the person who appointed the members, and that would create a new political agenda, they said.

“I am concerned about the idea that this might become a state issue,” Frogge said. “We need to keep it local. We have the best perspective on how a school might impact a community.”

Speering wants parents to make their wishes known before the legislative session begins in January. She voted in favor of Great Hearts because “we don’t have a clear diversity plan,” she said. “Because of that, we are partly at fault that there are misunderstandings between us.”

She and other board members hope to create a formal diversity plan that can be viewed by charter applicants in advance so they know what Metro officials are looking for in a new charter school.

Schools spokeswoman Meredith Libbey said the district “will learn from this experience,” adding, “It is important that we work collaboratively and set a clear vision and mutually understood expectations.”

FREEDOM TO LEARN. This week the nation celebrates National Charter Schools Week, with a Presidential proclamation that trumpets charters as “incubators of innovation…[that] give educators the freedom to cultivate new teaching models” and more. In today’s global economy, the prerequisite for the U.S. to be competitive is a world-class education system. And, charters are leading the way to securing a quality education for all children. Here’s a round-up of the latest headway made by charter schools and their advocates:

• BASIS Tucson, a high-achieving charter school located in Tucson, Arizona, is ranked number one charter school in U.S. News & World Report’s 2012 rankings of high schools. But, the charter goes one step further securing the number six rank of all high schools nationwide! Even better news: BASIS Tucson is bringing its high-octane, high-quality learning to Washington D.C. this September.

• Massachusetts education officials are lifting a temporary moratorium on proposals to open charter schools in several cities across the state, including Boston. Mitchell Chester, Massachusetts commissioner of elementary and secondary education, points to fever-pitched demand as the reason. Case-in-point, the Boston Globereports that in Boston, the wait list at charters ranges from 550 to 2,647 students!

• Legislation that would allow higher education institutions to become charter school authorizers is heading to South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley, who indicates she will sign the bill.

• The prestigious Frank Newman Award for State Innovation, presented by the Education Commission of the States, this year goes to New Hampshire for its success in moving beyond the time-worn Carnegie units, exemplified in the state’s Great Bay eLearning Charter School, which along with several other schools was named as part of the state’s Circle of Excellence. The Great Bay charter boasts high-quality learning in a 21st-century environment.

• Cherokee Charter Academy was host to Georgia Governor Nathan Deal as he signed into law legislation that would fund charter schools. For all of his efforts, Deal was presented with the 2012 Champions for Charters Award by the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools.

TRANSFORMERS. For the most part, charter schools and their dedication to high performance and innovation are sailing through legislatures. But, not only do they lead the way in reform, the cause a “transformative effect on children, families, communities and state policy,” says Jeanne Allen, president of The Center for Education Reform. “Because of their impact, not only are they propelling student achievement forward for the 2 million children in them, but charter schools are also causing traditional education to act and react in dramatic ways.” Read more about how charters are guiding all schools into 21st-century learning here. Also, visit the Media Bullpen for everything you want to know about charter schools over the past year, including daily updates from around the states.
]]> http://www.edreform.com/2012/05/may-8-2012/feed/ 0 http://www.edreform.com/2012/02/exploring-citys-power-to-authorize-charters/ http://www.edreform.com/2012/02/exploring-citys-power-to-authorize-charters/#comments Fri, 24 Feb 2012 20:21:07 +0000 admin http://www.edreform.com/?p=6648 Mayor Vincent C. Gray and Chancellor Kaya Henderson are discussing a plan to restore the District’s power to create public charter schools as part of an effort to raise the quality of education in low-income communities.

The measure, if adopted, could accelerate the robust growth of publicly funded, independently operated schools that serve 41 percent of the city’s 77,000 students across 98 campuses. Read More…