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.
New Superintendent Selected to Run New Orleans' Schools
Paul Vallas, who has run Philadelphia's school district since 2002, will become superintendent of the state-run New Orleans' Recovery School District beginning this summer. The Recovery School District runs 22 of New Orleans' 58 public schools. The city's public school enrollment is about 26,000, including its 31 charter schools. "He's going to bring an energy and leadership that's really going to solve some problems in New Orleans," said Greg Richmond, head of the National Association of Charter School Authorizers. NACSA has a contract with the Recovery District to create and oversee new charter schools. "He has the best experience in urban schools...managing a portfolio of schools run by different groups," Richmond said. Robin Jarvis, the current superintendent, announced May 1 that she would step down to focus on family and new opportunities.
Source: Chicago Tribune (free registration required), (05/04/2007)
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Alliance Honors Policymakers With "Champion for Charters" Award
The National Alliance for Public Charter Schools has announced U.S. Senator Lamar Alexander (R-TN), Lieutenant Governor Casey Cagle (R-GA), State Representative Dwight Evans (D-PA), and Mayor Richard Daley (D-Chicago) as the recipients of the 2007 Champion for Charters Award. "Charter schools are answering parents' demand for quality public education," said Nelson Smith, president of the Alliance. "We are proud to recognize these distinguished policymakers for championing efforts that will help the charter movement grow to meet the needs of millions more children who need them most." The officials were selected based on the following award criteria: championed a major public charter issue or initiative, particularly over the past year; served as a highly visible public charter school advocate; and consistently supported public charter schools as a quality school choice option and/or policy.
Source: PR Newswire, (05/04/2007)
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New Study Finds Charter Schools Improve Learning Faster than Non-Charter Public Schools
A new University of Southern California study of charter schools has found that charters improve student learning faster than traditional public schools despite trailing them in overall academic performance and teaching English to students who are learning it as a second language. Rather than solely looking at the results on standardized assessments, the study examined "academic momentum" to learn if schools are improving over time and "school productivity" to see how their academic achievement relates to the amount of money they spend. Caprice Young of the California Charter Schools Association said the report demonstrates "that, despite the fact that the cards are stacked against charter schools, the students in them improve faster than they do in other schools. What that report shows is that we don't get to spend as much in the classrooms because we have to spend more on facilities."
Source: LA Times (free registration required), (05/04/2007)
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Charter Advocates in North Carolina Lobby Legislature to Raise Cap
Charter supporters in North Carolina rallied outside the state legislative building on May 2, calling for a lifting on the state's 100-school charter cap and growth restrictions. "What we're looking for is to allow charter schools to grow as they see fit," said Norman George, a charter school principal. "But more importantly it's to add more charter schools." Currently, only 100 charter schools are allowed in the state and they can only grow in enrollment by up to 10 percent each year. Advocates pushed the message that charter schools can ease the growth crunch in urban public school districts and offer families a choice. "We can build them one and a half times faster so they are a tremendous deal not just to people but charter schools are teaching kids and that's the bottom line," said Philip Adkins of the North Carolina League of Charter Schools.
Source: NBC-17, (05/03/2007)
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National Science Teacher Award Goes to Charter School Teacher
Beth Giles, a teacher at Polk Avenue Elementary Charter School in Lake Wales, Florida has been named the National Science Teacher of the Year. The award was made by the National Science Foundation, along with the White House. Polk Avenue Principal Donna Dunson describes Giles as "a wealth of knowledge." Giles will receive $10,000 and a weeklong trip to Washington, D.C., where award winners will be presented signed citations by President Bush.
Source: The Ledger, (05/03/2007)
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Proposed Charter Legislation to Expand Eligibility Requirements Fails in Tennessee
Tennessee lawmakers have failed to pass new legislation that would have allowed children from schools that were not on the NCLB low-performing list to apply to charter schools as long as they were receiving free or reduced lunch. The current law allows students to apply for a charter school only if they are either attending a school that is low-performing, are low-performing themselves, or have previously attended a charter school. Rep. Beth Harwell, the bill's sponsor, said she hoped state lawmakers did not see charters as a financial burden on public schools systems.
"The money should follow the child," she said. "We should be doing everything we can to help children, not being worried about money.If anything, public charter schools are doing this for less because they receive no funds for building, they receive no money for transportation and so they have to cover that at their own expense." She pledges to push the bill through the legislature next year.
Source: Nashville City Paper, (05/02/2007)
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Local North Carolina Superintendent Seeks Ban on New Charters
Durham Public Schools Superintendent Carl Harris wants a ban on new charter schools in Durham County. His district has the highest percentage of schoolchildren (currently eight percent of local school age children) enrolled in charter schools in the state. He has sent his request in a letter to State Board of Education Chair Howard Lee and Jack Moyer, the state's director of charter schools. He says the $8 million that is projected to be transferred to eight charters next year will adversely affect the school district's budget.
Source: News and Observer, (05/02/2007)
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Virtual Charter Schools Lose State Financing in Indiana
Last week, the Indiana General Assembly stripped virtual charter schools of $21 million in state financing. State officials said no policy prevents charters from opening with 100 percent of operational costs from non-public sources, but that they will not be considered public schools even if they can get enough funding to open. They will receive no state accreditation, Title 1 or supplemental grants, free ISTEP testing, or other public school benefits. "I'm so upset. I feel like we've been run over by a bus. We've been sold out," said Rhonda Eby, board chair for the Indiana Connections Academy Virtual Charter School. "This is going to leave behind 2,200 of Indiana's children who can't learn best in a traditional public school." Larry Gabbert, director of the Office of Charter Schools at Ball State University, which sponsors the charters, said "with this change, we just need time to figure out what this all means."
Source: Post-Tribune, (05/02/2007)
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Ohio House Rejects Governor's Call for Changes to Charter Legislation
On May 1, the Ohio House rejected Governor Ted Strickland's proposed moratorium on new charter schools and prohibition on for-profit companies running charter schools.
Source: Dayton Daily News, (05/02/2007)
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U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings Addresses National Charter Schools Conference
On April 27, U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings addressed the 2007 National Charter Schools Conference in Albuquerque, New Mexico highlighting her support for the nation's charter schools. She spoke of charter schools that she had visited and said those and other charters are "breaking apart the myth that some children can't learn. By acting as laboratories for best practices, they are changing attitudes about education and they're getting great results for kids." She said "charters are transforming urban education and tackling head-on the stubborn achievement gap." She concluded, "America has always been the world's innovation leader--pioneering the frontiers of space, medicine, and global communications. And if we give our students the skills they need to succeed we can be sure that they will continue to lead the charge on the frontiers of the future."
Source: U.S. Department of Education Press Release, (04/27/2007)
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