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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Jon Meacham, Editor of Newsweek, to Keynote at 2007 National Charter Schools Conference
Newsweek Editor Jon Meacham will be the kickoff keynote speaker at the 7th National Charter Schools Conference, set for April 24 – 27 in Albuquerque, New Mexico. More than 3,000 charter school colleagues will convene in the "Land of Enchantment" to celebrate the 15th anniversary of the movement and to hear Meacham's global outlook for educating students in the next 15 years and beyond. Meacham joins Kevin Johnson, former NBA basketball star and Founder/Chairman of the Board of St. HOPE Academy Charter School, as conference keynotes. Go to the conference website to register, make hotel reservations, and find out how to sign up for graduate credits/CEUs or to participate in the Virtual Career Fair. Hosted by the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, the conference will feature more than 120 breakout sessions, focusing on Quality, Policy, Advocacy and Capacity. For questions, e-mail nationalconference@publiccharters.org or call 206-463-3344.
Source: National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, (11/09/2006)
Also See
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Black Students' Reading Scores Jump in South Florida Charters
According to a Florida Charter Review Panel report, Broward County's charter schools are getting black students to read at or above grade level faster than traditional public schools. From 2000 to 2005, the number of Broward's black charter school students who read at or above grade-level jumped about 12 percent compared to an 8 percent increase at traditional schools, the report said. A student who scores a 3 or higher on the reading portion of the FCAT is considered to read at grade-level. About 56 percent of Broward's charter school students got 3's in 2005, according to the state Department of Education. "From a pure educator's perspective, I would say, 'Wow,'" said David Calvo, principal of Somerset Academy charter schools in Pembroke Pines.
Source: Sun Sentinel, (10/01/2006)
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DC Superintendent Plans Intervention in Charters
Only one of the D.C. Board of Education's 13 public charter school campuses reached academic targets in both reading and math in 2005-06. The majority of DC's public schools fell short in meeting their goals. In the district system, 118 of 146 schools failed to make adequate progress, as did 30 of 34 charter campuses overseen by the D.C. Public Charter School Board. DC Superintendent Clifford Janey has announced his intention to intervene and mandate steps to improve scores at the charter schools. But some charter advocates say that is illegal, as the law authorizes the Board of Education and a second chartering agency, not the superintendent, to manage the charters. Robert Cane of Friends of Choice in Urban Schools, a charter school advocacy organization, said "this is illegal, and we'll fight against that." He added, "it is unethical for the superintendent to involve himself in the operation of a charter school with which he competes."
Source: Washington Post (free registration required), (09/30/2006)
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Michigan Families Increasingly Drawn to Charters
Urban districts in Michigan, such as Detroit, are struggling with declining enrollment while the number of children in charter schools is growing. Although the number of students in charter schools this year has yet to be confirmed, the number is believed to be nearing 100,000, compared with about 92,000 last year. Michigan ranks third in the nation, behind California and Arizona, in the number of students attending charter schools. "We're surrounded by charters," said Cindy Lang, the principal at Clark Elementary in Detroit, which lost enrollment this year. At least 23 of its students moved to charter schools.
Source: Detroit Free Press, (09/28/2006)
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Suit Filed Over Charter Transportation in New Orleans
Charter school parents Kenneth and Karran Harper Royal have filed a lawsuit in Orleans Parish Civil Court challenging the decision of their child's school not to provide bus service. Although Lusher Elementary's charter agreement says it will not provide transportation, the suit states that state law requires public schools to provide transportation. The school board is responsible for making sure its chartered schools offer bus service, the suit claims, and asks the court to enforce that provision. School board member Lourdes Moran suggested the suit is misdirected. The board has "no authority to decide what (Lusher) should do in terms of transportation." She added: "If anyone has a quarrel with the way Lusher is handling transportation, they should discuss that with the individuals who are managing Lusher." The attorney filing the suit plans to convert the suit into a class action.
Source: The Times-Picayune, (09/28/2006)
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Study Identifies Innovation in California Charters
A USC Rossier School of Education study has identified 20 innovative programs in California charter schools and created a database to share their successes with other schools. The practices detailed in the report include project-based learning, positive discipline strategies and parent involvement models. "Charter schools were originally started to be laboratories for experimentation," said Priscilla Wohlstetter, director of the Center on Educational Governance at the USC Rossier School. "There's a fair amount of experimentation going on in charter schools, but no one has the time to search out the best experiments and to spread them to all kinds of public schools," Wohlstetter said. "Our compendium will help spread the promising practices beyond the schools that invented them."
Source: California Chronicle, (09/27/2006)
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