On average, the funding gap between charter schools and traditional schools is 22 percent, or $1,800 per pupil. The average charter school ends up with a total funding shortfall of nearly half a million dollars.
Source: Charter School Funding: Inequity’s Next Frontier
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Arizona's Charter School Students Surpass Traditional Public School Students in Achievement
In a study released this week, Human Resources Policy Corporation president Lewis Solmon and Pete Goldschmidt of the UCLA Center for the Study of Evaluation found that Arizona's charter school students performed higher than their peers attending traditional public schools. Despite beginning with lower test scores, they showed an overall annual achievement growth roughly three points higher than their non-charter school counterparts. The study examines nearly 158,000 test scores of more than 60,000 Arizona students attending 873 charter and traditional public schools statewide over a three-year period. Researchers found that charter school students in the elementary grades exhibited faster achievement growth than traditional public school students. Achievement growth in the middle grades was similar for both kinds of students, while high school achievement growth actually was higher for traditional public school students. Even so, charter students who completed the 12th grade surpassed traditional public school students on SAT-9 reading tests.
Source: PHX News, (03/16/2004)
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Virginia Senate Approves New Charter Legislation
By a vote of 79-21, the Virginia Senate approved the Charter School Excellence and Accountability Act on March 10. This proposal would allow charter schools to contract with private institutions of higher education, allow applicants to submit charter agreements to the Board of Education for review and comment, delete the authority of school boards to limit the number of charter schools, and increase the maximum charter term from three to five years. Virginia Governor Warner has indicated his support for the legislation.
Source: The Education Innovator, (03/15/2004)
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Charter School Foes in Massachusetts Mobilize
Charter school opponents in Massachusetts are following through with a series of last-ditch efforts to place the state's charter school expansion on hold. First among the efforts is a bill that would place a three-year moratorium on new charter schools retroactive to January 2003 and create a special commission to study the funding of charter schools and investigate alternative funding formulas. The measure may come up at a Joint Education Committee hearing in mid-March. The bill joins several lawsuits, including the city of North Adams' lawsuit against the State Board of Education. The suit alleges that SBE members, including Chairman James Peyser, had a conflict of interest when they granted a charter for a Berkshire school. Peyser is a former executive director of the Pioneer Institute for Public Policy Research in Boston, whose fellows included the school's founder and Principal Simeon Stolzberg. Peyser is now a partner at NewSchools Venture Fund, a private firm that promotes charter schools.
Source: Berkshire Eagle, (03/12/2004)
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Florida Bill Seeks to Regulate Charter School Pay
A Senate bill [SB 362] in Florida that would require charter schools to justify employee salaries made it through the government operations committee and is expected to pass easily. The bill would amend legislation to require charter schools to list the salary or salary range for each position and to explain how those ranges were set. "All we're trying to do is make it very clear to the school districts and school boards that they have the obligation and responsibility to ensure there is a parallel program going on," said Senate Education Chairman Republican Lee Constantine. Constantine wrote the bill after reports surfaced that a principal of a small charter school in Duval County earned $137,000; the county average for traditional public school principals was about $69,000.
Source: Sun Sentinel, (03/12/2004)
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Unions in New York Protest Charter School Participation in Fundraiser
Since its inception in 1999, Buffalo's Carnival in the Park has raised about $400,000 for field trips and classroom supplies for local schools. The carnival allows parent-teacher groups at individual schools to raise money through raffles, games, food sales or arts and crafts. Some parent groups raise a few hundred dollars; others make as much as $12,000. But about half the participating schools have dropped out this year - and will no longer share in the proceeds - because two key school district unions object to the fact that charter schools will be allowed to take part in the event. The founder of the annual carnival, Michelle Stevens, charged that the Buffalo Teachers Federation and the union that represents Buffalo principals are depriving parent-teacher groups of valuable resources by urging union members to boycott the event. "They have chosen not to put children first," Stevens said. "I can't think of a more destructive way to teach children about community involvement. And it sends a terrible message to parents." Both BTF President Philip Rumore and Anthony Palano, head of the Buffalo Council of Supervisors and Administrators, said the state's charter school funding formula has been a major cause of deep personnel and program cuts in city schools for the last three years. Allowing charter schools to raise money and advertise at the carnival only worsens the school district's plight, they said.
Source: Buffalo News, (03/12/2004)
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Local Charter School Fight May Have Larger Implications for California Charters
Facing legal action from a charter school in its district, the Pajaro Valley Unified School District is blocking the school's access to cash for legal fees for the suit. Alianza Charter School attorneys plan to go to court this month, hoping to free the money and proceed with a lawsuit that could have implications for charter schools statewide. The school plans, in the larger lawsuit, to challenge a district decision to move Alianza across town. At stake, Alianza supporters say, is the right of all charter schools to pursue innovation and provide school choice, without interference from traditional public schools. District trustees voted 4-3 last month to move Alianza, making way for a new middle school. While district officials claim the shift was necessary to relieve overcrowding in the district's existing middle schools, parents and teachers blasted the decision, arguing a cross-town move would lead to a steep drop in enrollment and threaten the school's unique Spanish-English language program. Alianza's attorneys argue the maneuver was illegal. The bigger lawsuit, though, is in limbo as long as the district blocks Alianza's access to money for attorney fees.
Source: Santa Cruz Sentinel, (03/12/2004)
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Legislators Clear Path for Charter Schools in Washington
The state Legislature voted on March 10 to make Washington the 41st state to allow charter schools, the result of a decade-long effort by supporters that included two defeats at the ballot box. The bill now goes to Gov. Gary Locke, a strong charter school supporter, who had said he wouldn't let lawmakers go home without passing it. Proponents consider this bill a modest one, tailored to gain support among Democrats who fear charters could be no more than private schools in disguise. The bill allows a maximum of 45 new charters in the next six years, with the majority reserved for those that serve mostly disadvantaged students. School boards also could convert existing schools into charters if they're falling short of the test-score goals set out in the No Child Left Behind Act. Charters must be sponsored by a local school district. If the district turns applicants down, they can appeal to the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction, which must sponsor them if they meet all the criteria outlined in the legislation. The schools will receive state money on a per-student basis, and their sponsors could keep up to three percent to offset the costs of administration.
Source: Seattle Times, (03/11/2004)
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New Bill Would Allow California Universities to Authorize Charter Schools
A new bill in the California Legislature would allow public colleges and universities to authorize and oversee charter schools. Currently, only local school boards, county offices of education, and the state Board of Education can authorize charters. Other states, such as Michigan and New York, have allowed universities to operate charter schools. In both states, roughly eight out of ten charter schools are overseen by institutions of higher learning. Several universities in California already have expressed interest in operating charter schools. The bill will be heard by the Assembly's Education Committee in late March or early April.
Source: Sacramento Bee, (03/11/2004)
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More Charter High Schools Urged in Philadelphia
A new study from the Greater Philadelphia Urban Affairs Coalition says that Philadelphia's charter high schools outperform traditional campuses and recommends that the school district expand charter options for high school students. Last year, district test results showed that, overall, charter students scored below the district students on state assessments. The analysis by the Coalition removes the district's top magnet schools from the comparison, and finds charters actually performed better than regular neighborhood high schools. High school charters average an 87 percent attendance rate, compared to 73 percent for district high schools. And charters' dropout rate averages 3 percent versus 13 percent for neighborhood high schools. The report encourages the district to integrate charter high schools into its plan for change and include information about them in district publications.
Source: Philadelphia Inquirer, (03/10/2004)
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Arkansas Defers Action on Charter Renewals
Poor academic track records by Arkansas' first two open-enrollment charter schools has led the state Board of Education to defer action on their contract renewals. The board has asked the Department of Education and the charter schools to determine new goals in their renewed charter contracts. Board members said they had accepted goals lower than they should have and that they believe charter schools' academic expectations must be higher than traditional public schools. One board member said, "To have the same performance standards as every other school in the state I don't think is appropriate. Their performance standards need to be higher than what we expect from every other school in the state."
Source: Arkansas News, (03/09/2004)
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Wisconsin Governor to Propose Moratorium on Charter Schools in Milwaukee
Wisconsin's Governor Jim Doyle will unveil a sweeping education package for Milwaukee's schools, including a moratorium on the expansion of independent charter schools, or those chartered by an agency other than the school district. In the fall, Doyle vetoed a package of bills that would have expanded the charter program. One of the bills would have eliminated the cap on the number of participants. "The Legislature keeps sending me all these choice bills, and I've made it very clear I'm not going to look at Milwaukee education just in terms of choice," Doyle said in an interview. "I'm trying to present a package of proposals that both helps Milwaukee Public Schools and makes some of the changes in the choice program which people have been looking for."
Source: Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel (free registration required), (03/07/2004)
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