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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Note: Please be aware that online publishers often change URLs or no longer provide access to articles after 7 days. If any of the below links no longer work, access the publishing newspaper and search the archives for the keywords in the subject matter. Good luck.
National Charter Schools Week to Be Celebrated This Week
Beginning today, charter advocates, parents, teachers and students from across the country will celebrate the role high-performing charter schools play in opening doors to opportunities for families. With the theme of "Closing the Gap," the 8th annual National Charter Schools Week will highlight how charter schools are making meaningful gains for disadvantaged children. In honor of the celebration, President George W. Bush made a proclamation, saying "Charter schools are getting results and helping guide children across the country on the path to a better life…we thank educational entrepreneurs for supporting charter schools, and we honor all those involved in charter schools for helping their students reach high expectations." To help make the week a success, the Alliance is offering a toolkit, which includes suggested engagement activities, templates, and talking points.
Source: National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, (04/30/2007)
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Advocates Seek Bigger Role for Chartering Under NCLB
As Congress begins to debate revisions to the No Child Left Behind Act, federal officials and charter school advocates are calling for changes to boost chartering power. The Bush administration recently put forth recommendations for changes including allowing federal law to trump state-imposed restrictions on the number of charter schools in cases where communities want to close poor-performing schools and reopen them as charters. "The whole idea of restructuring is that the old way didn't work, all bets are off," said Karl Zinsmeister, the President's chief domestic-policy adviser. "We need to try something dramatic, something new, and getting around the caps is, we think, an important first step." The National Alliance for Public Charter Schools has put forth several ideas for the reauthorization of NCLB.
Source: Education Week (subscription required), (04/23/2007)
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L.A. Charter Schools Struggle for School Facilities
Within the boundaries of the L.A. Unified district, there are 103 charter schools. Of the 35 that applied for classroom space for the next school year, 21 were turned down or received what they consider unacceptable offers, three have acceptable offers and the rest are under review. "Charter school students have an equal call on classroom seats," said Caprice Young of the California Charter Schools Assn. "The school district finds every way it possibly can to not give space to charter schools. The school district's policy is explicitly illegal." District officials say they will not and should not create new hardships for students in traditional district schools in the interests of offering equity to those in charter schools. Young is calling for the school district to integrate charter schools into its long-term planning, especially making them a bigger part of L.A. Unified's construction effort, the largest in the nation.
Source: LA Times (free registration required), (04/23/2007)
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7th Annual National Charter Schools Conference to Be Held This Week in New Mexico
On April 24, the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools will welcome over 2,500 attendees to the 7th Annual National Charter Schools Conference in Albuquerque, New Mexico! The conference will celebrate the 15th anniversary of the opening of the nation's first charter school and offer numerous special events and sessions presented by leaders of the charter school movement. Online registration has closed but registration can be completed each day at the conference at the Albuquerque Convention Center beginning Tuesday, April 24th through Friday, April 27th.
Source: National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, (04/22/2007)
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Some New Orleans Charter Leaders Upset Over State Plan to Recruit Out-of-State Teachers
Some charter school leaders are criticizing a recently-approved Louisiana State Board of Education plan to recruit out-of-state teachers to New Orleans, saying the recruitment package would be financed with funds intended for rebuilding and opening schools and would exclude in-state educators. Under the plan, financed with federal "restart" money, the state would provide out-of-state teachers incentives worth $17,000 over two years. Brian Riedlinger, CEO of the Algiers Charter Schools Association, said the plan causes his organization to miss out on about $2.5 million in funding. Schools, especially the state-run Recovery School District campuses, have had trouble finding enough qualified teachers for new or re-opened schools. Riedlinger said he wants RSD schools to succeed "but you can't do it on my back." One charter school official called the plan "borderline immoral."
Source: The Times-Picayune, (04/21/2007)
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KIPP to Seek Help to Access Available School Space in Maryland
The successful Knowledge is Power Program (KIPP) Harbor Academy school had hoped to move into Annapolis Middle School, which is two-thirds vacant, to keep to its plan to add a seventh grade in the fall and an eighth grade in 2008. Anne Arundel County Board of Education members have rebuffed the school's request, saying that the KIPP school should look for private help as the district school is reserved for resource programs and the district has done all it can do to help. Andy Smarick, vice president of the board of directors for KIPP Harbor Academy, said that school leaders will continue to try to work with the county school board, but also would look for support from local and state government officials.
Source: Baltimore Sun, (04/20/2007)
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L.A. Charter School Sues Radio Station for Civil Rights Violations and Slander
A Los Angeles charter school has sued KABC-AM (790) and one of its hosts, Doug McIntyre, alleging that McIntyre is guilty of civil rights violations for inciting others to harm the school and its students, as well as slander. Last year, McIntyre accused the school of pursuing a racist, separatist and dangerously revolutionary agenda. District officials looked into the accusations and found nothing "politically worrisome." According to the court filing, McIntyre made a number of false statements, including: "His [the school director's] job is to keep his school, his madrasa school, open so they can train the next generation of Aztec revolutionaries. Again, I want to make sure that we emphasize this: This school should close." Academia Semillas del Pueblo and Marcos Aguilar, the school's co-director, claim McIntyre "targeted the school for destruction because the children were Latino, the teachers were Latino, the principal director was Latino."
Source: LA Times (free registration required), (04/20/2007)
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Proposal Seeks to Reduce Funding for Pennsylvania's Online Charter Schools
Traditional district school officials in Pennsylvania are applauding proposed House Bill 446 which would require the state to pay for cyber charter school students and fund online charter schools at a level far less than school districts pay currently. The bill calls for paying only $5,000 per student in a cyber school with 1,000 or fewer students; $4,000 per student enrolled in a cyber school with 1,001 to 4,999 students, and; $3,000 per student for schools with 5,000 or more students. Parents and charter school leaders are alarmed and plan to lobby legislators on May 8. CEO Joanne Barnett of Pennsylvania Virtual Charter School, the county's largest provider of public online learning for K-12 students, says her school spends an average of about $8,000 per year to educate each student, and the cyber charter school would be required to close if it were to be paid only $4,000 per student.
Source: The York Dispatch, (04/20/2007)
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Philadelphia Renews 13 Charters Despite Political Pressures
Despite political pressures to place a moratorium on charters, the Philadelphia School Reform Commission has approved five-year extensions for all 13 charter schools seeking renewal. Chairman James Nevels said the commission would continue to back charter schools, despite the district's financial problems. "There has been a consistent support for charters by the School Reform Commission," he said. "They are an essential ingredient for school choice, and we will continue to support them." When it was revealed last fall that the district was suffering from a $73 million deficit, the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers urged the commission to place a moratorium on new charters. The district's 56 charter schools are increasingly popular, currently enrolling nearly 30,000 students.
Source: Philadelphia Inquirer, (04/19/2007)
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Charter School Enrollment Soars in Denver
Enrollment in Denver's charter schools grew by 300 percent to 6,846 between 2000 to 2006. During the same time period, enrollment in district schools fell by 4,028 students. Charter schools seem particularly popular with black families. Black students in the city are twice as likely as white or Hispanic students to pick charter schools over other options such such as magnet schools. Thirteen percent of all black students in the Denver district now enroll in charter schools, compared with 5.9 percent of white students and 5.6 percent of Hispanic students. Charter students account for approximately 9 percent of the district's 73,000 students, a figure expected to increase in coming years. A survey of parents commissioned by the district found that, by a 3-1 ratio, respondents thought charter schools were better than other DPS schools.
Source: Rocky Mountain News, (04/18/2007)
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Parents Protest Ohio Governor's Plan to Stop Charter School Growth
Last week over 600 charter school students, parents and supporters rallied in Dayton to tell state leaders why they favor charter schools. Many who attended wore T-shirts with messages like "I love my charter school," and hoisted handmade signs that read "save our schools." The rally was organized by Parents Advancing Choice in Education and the local chapter of the Black Alliance for Education Options. Governor Ted Strickland's recent budget proposal calls for forbidding management companies from operating charters in Ohio and capping the growth of new charters. Speaking from the grounds of Dayton View Academy, a seven-year-old charter school, run by Edison Schools, Ohio House Speaker Jon Husted said the governor's proposal "would close the school we're standing in right now. It would essentially close down choice and competition in Ohio."
Source: Dayton Daily News, (04/18/2007)
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L.A. Board Reverses Decision on Green Dot Charters
Two weeks after rejecting a petition from successful Los Angeles charter school operator Green Dot Public Schools to open eight small high schools in the city’s Watts neighborhood, the Los Angeles Unified School District's board of education reversed its decision. Green Dot operates 10 small high schools in some of LA's most troubled neighborhoods. Jon Lauritzen, a school board member, who previously had voted against approving the charters, asked for a reconsideration of that vote and changed his position to support the applications. The new 4-3 vote will allow Green Dot to open its schools for the 2008-09 school year, a year later than the applicants had requested.
Source: Education Week (subscription required), (04/18/2007)
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