Tag Archives: Topic: Charter Schools

Charles Murray writing in the New York Times: “As an advocate of school choice, all I can say is thank heavens for the Milwaukee results. Here’s why: If my fellow supporters of charter schools and vouchers can finally be pushed off their obsession with test scores, maybe we can focus on the real reason that school choice is a good idea. Schools differ in what they teach and how they teach it, and parents care deeply about both, regardless of whether test scores rise.”

Times Picayune: “Charter schools will outnumber traditional schools two to one in the Recovery School District next school year, in an effort to rapidly shrink the roster of schools under the state-run district’s direct control.”

Bluegrass Policy Blog: “There’s a smokescreen of allegations that charter schools are leading to school re-segregation. , a University of Arkansas team takes a look at one specific example of the shaky research behind such claims in a new article in the Summer 2010 edition of Education Next, ‘A Closer Look at Charter Schools and Segregation.’ ‘A Closer Look’ takes strong issue with the methodology of another recent report from the UCLA-based Civil Rights Project (CRP), claiming that study’s ‘flawed comparisons lead to overstated conclusions.’”

Washington Post: “Although charter schools have become firmly established in the District’s education world, stepping over to Montgomery County means entering a charter desert . . . ”

The NY Post: “A record 43,000 students could not get into charter schools this year because of a lack of space — a pent-up demand that will only worsen because of the state’s cap on new schools, officials said yesterday. There are currently 99 charter schools in the city, a number that will expand to 125 next fall with 38,400 students. But the increase in capacity can’t keep up with a growing number of parents desperately seeking to get their kids into popular charters . . . ”

Kentucky.com: “A potential compromise that would allow charter schools in Kentucky is gaining momentum in the Capitol and could even help resolve an impasse over the state budget . . . ”

Hat tip: Bluegrass Institute

Bluegrass Politics: “A potential compromise that would allow charter schools in Kentucky is gaining momentum in the Capitol, and could even help resolve an impasse over the state budget.”

Google News (AP): “A plan to create what could be the first U.S. public charter schools run by a Roman Catholic archdiocese is meeting resistance from those who worry about whether religious messages and icons will really stay out of the classrooms and hallways . . . ”

Bluegrass Institute: “Kentucky lawmakers are being invited to see public charter schools in action. Rep. Brad Montell, R-Shelbyville, recently sent a letter to all state legislators inviting them to tour a public charter school in Indianapolis on Tuesday, the day before the state House can consider charter-school legislation already approved by the Senate.The trip is being funded by Phil Moffett, a Bluegrass Institute board member and co-founder of School CHOICE Scholarships in Louisville . . . ”

East Valley Tribune: “Arizona charter schools are scrambling to determine steps they’ll take in light of state budget cuts in public education for next school year. It’s not just the per student funding that’s impacting them, charter leaders say. The decision to cut full-day kindergarten funding, as well as grants for gifted, prevention and early childhood programs is making it a ‘scary’ time to be operating one of nearly 500 charter schools in the state . . . ”

Candace de Russy writes at Breitbart Big Journalism: “Liberal pundits are racing to heap praise on the Obama Administration’s award of hundreds of millions of dollars in education grants to Delaware and Tennessee – the result of the first round of the Race to the Top competition among states . . . The Wall Street Journal bothered to dig deeper, noting that the two winning states have some of the nation’s more anemic charter laws and that Education Secretary Arne Duncan didn’t even mention charters in his announcement of the awards.”

Richmond Times-Dispatch: “Richmond politicians rallied tonight around the Patrick Henry School of Science and Arts, a south Richmond project struggling to attain its goal of becoming the state’s only elementary charter school.”

Philip K. Howard writes at the Wall Street Journal: “The charter school movement is succeeding because it liberates teachers and principals from rules and regulations and holds them accountable for results.”

Associated Press: “The number of charter schools permitted in Rhode Island could increase under legislation that state lawmakers were expected to approve Tuesday to boost the state’s chances of winning millions of dollars in federal education aid.”

Minneapolis Star-Tribune: “In a formal move to join the legal battle over religion at their school, several families at Tarek ibn Ziyad Academy (TiZA) have asked a judge to let them intervene as parties in a lawsuit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union of Minnesota.”

Heritage Foundation, The Foundry: “Lieberman has been fighting for months to get an up-or-down vote on the DCOSP and saw a good opportunity with the Business Relief Act. But Reid prevented an up-or-down vote by ruling Lieberman’s amendment ‘not germane’ to the underlying legislation. When has that ever stopped the Senate before? The reality is that the Obama administration and Senate Democrats want to avoid an up-or-down vote on the DCOSP at all costs . . . ”

UPI.com: “The vote virtually assures passage of the bills in the Democrat-controlled Senate next week and in the General Assembly this year.”

The Columbus Dispatch: “Brookwood Presbyterian Church runs an educational program for 64 students with autism and other special needs, but as a church, it is disqualified from sponsoring charter schools, the Ohio Department of Education says . . . The case is fraught with church-state implications. The church says it should be treated like any other prospective sponsor of charter schools in Ohio. The state says a church is not an “education-oriented entity” as required to sponsor a charter school in the state.”

Richmond Times Dispatch: “The committee voted 17-5 for the legislation. Under a compromise announced last week, local school boards would continue to have final say on charter applications. But the state Board of Education would review an application and make a recommendation to the local board.”

Gary Palmer writes at the Alabama Policy Institute: “While the Legislature may have killed the chance to get more than $180 million from the ‘Race to the Top’ program, the greater loss for Alabama is in the potential economic and financial impact that could be achieved from a charter school program.”

WTKR.com (AP): “The Senate Education and Health Committee was to vote Thursday on the measure, one of Gov. Bob McDonnell’s priorities during his campaign. The bill underwent last-minute changes to make it more palatable to some opponents, so the 15-member committee allowed discussion of the issue and postponed action until next week, said bill sponsor Sen. Stephen Newman.”

SDNN.com: “Educators and community activists in the Los Angeles area have established a new school aimed at preventing cases such as King’s. The new charter school provides LGBT and LGBT-friendly youth the opportunity to earn their high school diploma in a safe environment, free from persecution.
The first of its kind in Southern California, the new school is a collaboration between Opportunities for Learning (OFL) and the L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center program LifeWorks . . . ”

San Francisco Chronicle: “The Los Angeles Board of Education on Tuesday voted to reject a number of applications from charter school operators, choosing instead to hand control of nearly 30 schools to nonprofit educational groups formed by teachers and administrators already employed by the district.”

Washington Post: “The decison is somewhat surprising given that charter schools are strongly supported by President Obama and one of the caucus’s own members, Del. Rosalyn R. Dance (D-Petersburg), is listed as a chief co-patron of one of the bills and appeared with McDonnell at his news conference.”

Religion Clause Blog: “A large number of California school districts and teachers unions have refused to accept education reforms being pushed by the Obama administration, and that could hamper the state’s chances of winning hundreds of millions of dollars in federal grants, some officials fear.”

Idaho Press-Tribune: “The Idaho’s Public Charter School Commission Thursday approved a definition of religious texts, but a local academy objects to the way the issue was handled . . . The definition answers Nampa Classical Academy’s question of what the commission considers to be a religious text. But the definition will apply to all commission-approved charter schools. It means the Bible and similar materials can’t be used in charter classrooms.”

Georgia Public Broadcasting: “The State Board of Education has upheld recent approvals of charter schools by the state’s Charter School Commission. That means two more school districts will be suing the state over charter school funding.”

Richmond Times Dispatch: “State education groups today called Gov. Bob McDonnell’s initiative to loosen charter school laws part of a ‘political agenda,’ that would send precious education dollars to schools that are not needed in a time of drastic budget cuts.”

EduationNews.org: Today the Education and the Public Interest Center (EPIC) at the University of Colorado at Boulder and the Education Policy Research Unit (EPRU) at Arizona State University released a study that examines enrollment patterns in schools operated by Education Management Organizations. Schools without Diversity: Education Management Organizations, Charter Schools, and the Demographic Stratification of the American School System finds these schools segregated by race, family income, disabilities, and English language learner status

NCPA: “President Obama’s fiscal 2011 budget calls for a 9 percent increase in federal education spending, and he has famously said that the money should go to ‘what works’ in education. So he ought to take another look at Milwaukee, where the nation’s oldest and largest publicly funded school voucher program is showing academic gains, says the Wall Street Journal.”

CBS 47: “Members of the Fresno Teachers Association plan to speak out at a Fresno Unified meeting on Wednesday.”

Georgia Public Broadcasting: “The State Board of Education is reconsidering decisions made by the state’s controversial Charter School Commission. The board’s vote tomorrow could result in another lawsuit against the state regarding charter school funding.”

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.”