Tag Archives: Topic: Charter Schools

The Palmetto Scoop: “The battle over a proposed charter school in Northeast Richland County is heating up. The planners of the Hope Academy Charter School have filed paperwork in South Carolina Administrative Law Court challenging Richland School District 2’s decision to deny the school’s charter, which was approved by the State Department of Education in July . . . ”

EducationNews.org: “Advocates for Maryland’s charter schools are gearing up for what they hope will be a watershed year for reform of the state’s charter school law.”

EducationNews.org: “New research from the John Locke Foundation, North Carolina’s leading think tank, shows that Under the new ‘Revocation of Charter for Lack of Academic Performance’ policy, only low-performing charter schools are subject to closure by the NC State Board of Education. There is no equivalent policy for district schools.”

Lompoc Record: “With one charter school proposal already on its plate, the Board of Education for the Lompoc school district spent the better part of Tuesday evening in a public workshop learning more about the charter school approval process, one of the more complex issues in education.”

SchoolChoiceWI.org: “School Choice Wisconsin (SCW) today released the third study by University of Minnesota Sociologist John Robert Warren showing that students in the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program (MPCP) graduate at a higher rate than students in the Milwaukee Public Schools.”

he study and release can be accessed at the links below or by clicking here and here.

Mercury News (AP): “Student journalists in charter schools would have the same free-speech rights as other public school students under a bill moving through the Legislature.”

Arizona Republic: “The Arizona State Board for charter schools votes today on 19 applications for new charter schools, including one from Mesa Public Schools, the state’s largest district, which is looking for new ways to compete in the face of declining enrollment.”

NCPA: “Parents are demanding more public charter schools according an annual survey conducted by the Center for Education Reform. While demand grew by 21 percent over the last year, there aren’t enough charters to meet demand, often due to legislatively imposed caps. For every public charter school in the country, there are 239 students denied the opportunity to attend . . . ”

Education Week: “Juneau said that to qualify for the federal money, Montana would have to weaken local control of schools, change how it evaluates teachers in ways that could violate labor contracts and possibly agree to transfer teachers from one district to another.”

Education Week (AP): “Gov. David Paterson and legislative leaders failed Tuesday to reach a compromise on expanding charter schools by a federal deadline, with millions of dollars in education funding at stake.”

EducationNews.org: “Angry parents yesterday ripped Albany for putting the teachers union before kids, as lawmakers moved to block the expansion of charter schools — jeopardizing New York state’s bid to win $700 million in federal education funds.”

NY Post: “A furious Mayor Bloomberg yesterday blasted a charter-school overhaul plan proposed by Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, calling it a ‘wolf in sheep’s clothing’ that would victimize children and cost taxpayers as much as $700 million in federal aid.
Silver’s bill would double to 400 the state’s nearly exhausted cap on charters — but gut the program by creating onerous new hurdles to their construction, the mayor said.”

9WYR.com: “Legislative leaders and Gov. David Paterson have agreed to raise the cap on charter schools as part of steps to meet a federal deadline for getting up to $700 million in additional aid to schools.”

Birmingham Business Journal: “The Alabama State Board of Education unanimously approved a resolution that urges the legislature to pass a charter schools law on Thursday . . .”

NJ Star Ledger: “Sitting in his transition office a few blocks from the state capitol in Trenton, Chris Christie was in full battle mode today, like a boxer who couldn’t wait to climb into the ring and start pounding away. In fact, he wasn’t waiting. His target: The 200,000-member strong New Jersey Education Association . . . ”

StarTribune.com: “The state ranked highest in a study released Wednesday by the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools.”

Columbus Dispatch: “State restrictions limiting the growth of charter schools will jeopardize Ohio’s chances of winning federal Race to the Top funds, according to an analysis released today by advocates of the tax-funded, privately operated schools. The report by the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools in Washington D.C. says Ohio is one of 13 states with restrictive caps on charter school growth.”

AP: Winters, R-Murray, didn’t rule out tacking on a provision to create charter schools, which would get state money but be exempted from many of the regulations that apply to other public schools.”

Marcus A. Winters writing at City Journal: “New York could dramatically improve its chances of winning up to $700 million in federal Race to the Top dollars by eliminating its cap on the number of charter schools allowed to operate in the state. But the United Federation of Teachers would rather forgo those much-needed funds than let Gotham’s (typically) non-unionized charter-school sector expand.”

Idaho Statesman: “[S]ome information sought by the commission was not provided, the result of differing legal opinions between attorneys for the commission and the school . . . From its founding last year, the classical academy included the Bible, Quran and Book of Mormon among 137 books listed in the school’s core reading list. Board members said the books would be used for secular history and literature lessons, not religious teaching. But the charter commission and attorney general’s office contend those plans violate the state constitution, and the Alliance Defense Fund filed a federal lawsuit on the school’s behalf in September.”

“Instead, the court concluded, the school is a private company . . . ”

San Francisco Chronicle: “The California Legislature is poised to pass an education plan today that makes far-reaching changes to how public schools are governed, giving parents the power to transfer their kids out of failing schools and to force districts to overhaul bad schools . . . ”

TuscaloosaNews.com: “Gov. Bob Riley will ask the Legislature to pass a charter school law to boost Alabama’s chances at getting some of the $175 million in federal stimulus money that will be competitively available beginning next month.The conservative Alabama Policy Institute backs the idea of charter schools. API vice president Michael Ciamarra is working with the Riley administration on the issue.”

Bluegrass Institute: “In 2008, more than 10,000 students were trapped in Kentucky’s 34 Tier 5 schools – schools failing to make adequate progress for at least six years.”

Idaho Press-Tribune: “The Coeur d’Alene school’s use of the Bible shows the state has singled out Nampa Classical Academy by prohibiting it from using religious texts, Nampa Classical Academy attorney David Cortman said. Cortman works for the Alliance Defense Fund, which describes itself as ‘a legal alliance defending the right to hear and speak the Truth,’ on its Web site. It has taken the case for Nampa Classical Academy without charging the school for its services.”

Associated Press: “One of the largest public charter schools in the state has drafted a plan to fix several problem areas identified by Idaho officials last month.”

ADF attorney David Cortman appeared on AFR’s Focal Point with Brian Fisher to discuss this: Lawsuit filed after Idaho commission bans all religious texts from curriculum.

The MP3 runs between 14 and 15 minutes.

“What interest could it possibly serve … to say that you can study, for example, Job in literature class … only if you read Job from a source that has copied it verbatim, but not from the book of Job if it is still attached to the scriptures?” . . . “It seems to be a distinction without a difference, and a bit silly at that.” (Idaho Press-Tribune)

ADF attorney David Cortman appeared on The Michael Medved Show to discuss this: Lawsuit filed after Idaho commission bans all religious texts from curriculum.

The MP3 runs just over 31 minutes.

US News and World Report indicates that 11 states still don’t have any charter schools, but as the map reveals there is definitely an explosion of charter schools across the country. Does your state support school choice?

EducationNews.org: “Texas’s charter school law is one of the nation’s weakest, according to a study released today by the national nonprofit Center for Education Reform. In terms of providing children with access to great public schools, Texas ranks 25th in the country with a D grade, the report indicates. Thirteen states, in total, received Ds.’

Wall Street Journal Editorial: “Charter schools reached a new milestone this year. According to the Center for Education Reform, more than 5,000 charters are now operating in 39 states and the District of Columbia. Considering that the first charter didn’t open until 1992, and that these innovative schools have faced outright hostility from teachers unions and the education bureaucracy, their growth is a rare gleam of hope for American public schools.”