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.
Detroit Mayor Seeks Creation of 25 More Charter Schools
Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick is seeking to open up to 25 new charter schools in Detroit as part of an effort to provide families with quality education options. Kilpatrick said he will ask Governor Jennifer Granholm and the state legislature to raise the cap on charter schools to allow his office to partner with cultural institutions and businesses in the city to create small middle and high schools. "This is a golden opportunity to change the way we think about education," he said. Kilpatrick is emphatic that he does not want his efforts to start a war with the city's education establishment. "I believe we should all say we support good schools, no matter what they are," he said. "What would be unacceptable is if the school board takes the position of 'no more charters.' That would not only be wrong, it would be ignorant. I hope the board decides to be an integral part of this process." Kilpatrick is talking with Central Michigan University about sponsoring the schools he charters.
Source: Detroit News, (05/14/2007)
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New Report Finds Charters Strong on Instilling "Civic Values" and Tolerance
In a meta-study of 21 recent studies, a group of university researchers has found that charters instill "civic values" at least as well as traditional public schools and that students at "schools of choice," which include private, parochial, and charter schools, are more tolerant of people who are different from themselves than students at traditional public schools. "There is a strong expectation or assumption that (traditional) public schools will outperform private and charter schools in instilling civic values because they're government run," said University of Arkansas professor Patrick Wolf. Instead, he said, this new study "suggests that school choice programs are performing as well as traditional public schools or in many cases outperforming them."
Source: New York Sun, (05/14/2007)
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School Boards and Unions Fight Cyber Charters in Pennsylvania
A bill that would require the state to directly fund cyber charter schools has the support of the Pennsylvania School Boards Association and the Pennsylvania State Education Association, the state's largest teachers union. The legislation calls for the state Education Department to pay for cyber schools and would limit the amount of tuition the schools can collect to a range of $3,000 to $5,000 per pupil, depending on the school's enrollment. "If we have to fight against their heavy lobbying efforts, where they have dozens of people that can meet with legislators all day on Capitol Hill--and our message doesn't reach them in time, I believe some very dangerous legislation could be passed," said Jim Hanak of the Pennsylvania Leadership Charter School, a cyber school. Currently, Pennsylvania has 11 cyber schools that enroll 17,000 students.
Source: Patriot-News, (05/13/2007)
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Virtual Charter Schools Lose Sponsorship in Indiana
Ball State University has lost its ability to sponsor two Indiana virtual charter schools, as the Indiana General Assembly voted not to grant the schools $21 million in education funding. Ball State sponsors 19 charter schools in Indiana, but the Indiana Connections Academy and the Indiana Virtual Charter School would have been the first K-12 virtual charter schools in the state. "We have 1,500 kids around the state who are disappointed and angry that our school was closed down by the General Assembly," said Ron Brumbarger, CEO of the Indiana Virtual Charter School. The schools are exploring alternative funding options.
Source: Ball State Daily News, (05/13/2007)
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L.A. Teachers Eager to Leave District and Join Green Dot Charters
The majority of tenured teachers and many untenured teachers at Locke High School, an LAUSD school where at least one of every two students drops out, have signed a petition seeking to leave the district and be run by Greet Dot Public Schools. Under Green Dot's proposal, which the L.A. board would likely have to approve, the campus would be divided into 10 Green Dot schools beginning in fall 2008. The petition calls for the school to receive its funding directly from the state, instead of allowing it to first pass through district. The extensive labor agreement negotiated by the district's teachers union would be tossed and teachers would have to re-apply for their jobs. "It's a leap of faith, but if you believe in this partnership between Green Dot and Locke teachers, then you believe that we are trying to change education in Los Angeles by turning more attention to students' needs and empowering teachers," said Bruce Smith, an English teacher.
Source: LA Times (free registration required), (05/10/2007)
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California Charter Schools Association to Certify Schools
The California Charter Schools Association is recognizing schools that have achieved excellence through a new Certified Charter Schools Program. The certification process includes a detailed self-study as well as a review by a third party, such as the Western Association of Schools and Colleges or the Washington-based American Academy for a Liberal Education. The association says the initiative is the first time a state's charter association has defined standards for quality and offered a seal of approval to schools that exceed it. "We knew as a movement that if we didn't take responsibility for defining quality, someone else was going to do it for us. And it wasn't going to look the way we wanted it to," said Caprice Young, leader of the organization. As of Spring 2007, more than 30 schools have gone through the certification process.
Source: Education Week (subscription required), (05/09/2007)
Also See
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Bill Increasing Licensure Requirement on Charters Dies in Oregon's Senate
Currently, 50 percent of teachers at Oregon's charter schools are required to have state licenses. This legislative session, a controversial bill (SB 621), supported by the Oregon Education Association, sought to raise the licensure requirement to 65 percent. Charter school supporters had argued that there is little or no relationship between teacher licensure and the quality of teaching and that the bill would have put unnecessary restrictions on charters. On May 7, the bill did not have enough votes to pass the Senate. Charter advocates are happy about the outcome but are keeping a close eye on a bill which would require future online charter schools to have at least 50 percent of their enrollment from the sponsoring district.
Source: The Oregonian, (05/07/2007)
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