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.
Waiting Lists for L.A.'s Charter Schools Number in the Thousands
As the beginning of the new school year approaches, families across the nation are scrambling to place their child in the best school they can find. In Los Angeles, charter schools are mostly oversubscribed with lengthy waiting lists of hopeful students. The Inner City Education Foundation, which operates the View Park charter schools, says its waiting list numbers more than 5,000. In particular, charter schools that have opened in working-class, black or Latino neighborhoods have been flooded with applications.
Source: LA Times (free registration required), (07/29/2007)
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Ohio Eliminates Start-up Grants for New Charter Schools
Ohio will no longer provide state-funded start-up grants for new charter schools. Karen Tabor, a spokesperson for Ohio House Speaker Jon Husted, says groups starting new charter schools should no longer need the money because anyone starting a new charter school this year must be currently operating an already successful charter school. Charter supporters say eliminating the grants is a further attempt to undermine charter school growth.
Source: WTOL-TV, (07/27/2007)
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NYC Charter School Students Lead City's Public Schools in Achievement Gains
Students in New York City charter schools are, on average, posting higher gains in reading and mathematics than they would have had they attended the city's traditional public schools. Researchers compared students who were accepted at charters through a random lottery to students who were rejected (lotteried-in vs. lotteried-out). Charter students gained about an extra 12 percent of a performance level in math each year over the comparison group. In reading, the growth is approximately an extra 3.5 percent each year. "This means that a charter school student whom we would have expected to be failing if he had stayed in the traditional public schools would be, at the end of 13 years of charter school education (K-12), above proficient in math," explained Caroline Hoxby, a Harvard University professor and co-author of the study. Jack Buckley of Columbia University said the study adds to a consensus that charter schools are having positive impacts.
Source: New York Sun, (07/26/2007)
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Ohio Official Warns Charter Schools to Comply with Audit Requirements
Last week, Ohio State Auditor Mary Taylor announced that her department will punish charter schools under Ohio's new budget law if their financial books are "unauditable" for more than 90 days. Twenty-three charter schools across the state are unauditable, and many audits have taken three or more years to complete. Taylor said charter schools on the unauditable list will not be subject to the new rules as long as they continue cooperating. The new rules apply to audits begun after July 1, 2007. Over the next few weeks, Taylor is meeting with charter school leaders as part of statewide training sessions.
Source: The Enquirer, (07/25/2007)
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The NY Times Profiles Green Dot’s Steve Barr
Last week, the New York Times profiled Green Dot Public Schools' leader Steve Barr, naming him a “union-friendly maverick.” Barr has attracted the attention of the media, educators and policymakers across the nation because many believe Green Dot’s strategies have the potential to strengthen and expand the charter school movement. While some teacher union officials fight hard against him, Randi Weingarten, the president of the United Federation of Teachers in New York City, is working with him to create a Green Dot school in the South Bronx. Andrew Rotherham, who worked in the Clinton White House and is co-director of Education Sector, a research organization, said, "Green Dot is mobilizing parents in poor neighborhoods and offering an alternative for frustrated teachers, and that’s scrambling the cozy power arrangements between the school district and the union to a degree not seen anywhere else."
Source: New York Times (free registration required), (07/24/2007)
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U.S. Department of Education Rejects Arizona's Grounds for Charter School Regulation
On July 24, the U.S. Department of Education (USDOE) rejected the argument made by the Arizona Department of Education (ADE) that failure to align the curricula of all public schools in the state, including charter schools, would jeopardize federal funding. In a letter to Clint Bolick of the Goldwater Institute, USDOE legal counsel Kent Talbert stated that nothing in federal law "mandates a state to align its social studies curriculum on a grade-by-grade basis to state standards," and therefore, "any non-alignment of such curriculum to state standards would not be grounds for withholding Federal funds." On June 22, the Goldwater Institute filed suit against the ADE on behalf of five charter schools. Oral arguments will be heard on August 6 in Maricopa County Superior Court on the schools' motion for a preliminary injunction against the curriculum alignment mandate, which is slated to take effect this school year.
Source: Goldwater Institute, (07/24/2007)
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Hebrew Charter School in Florida Ignites Church-State Separation Concerns
The nation's first Hebrew-language charter school is set to open Aug. 20 in Hollywood, Florida. The Ben-Gamla Charter School will be operated by a management company, Academica, under the direction of Adam Siegel, an Orthodox rabbi. The Anti-Defamation League has expressed concern about the new school, though the Broward County School Board and school officials insist that the school is not religious. But others worry. "Nobody's got a problem with teaching modern Hebrew," says Rabbi Allan Tuffs, a local rabbi. "What I'm worried about is that if Ben-Gamla succeeds, every religious group in America will want to have their own segregated, religious school funded with public money." Former Democratic U.S. Rep. Peter Deutsch, who helped establish the school, says developers have been working with constitutional lawyers for months and that the school will adhere to all state and federal laws. "I think we're on extraordinarily sound ground," he said.
Source: JTA, (07/24/2007)
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Charter Management Organization Offers Teacher Credentialing and a New Graduate School
In 2004, High Tech High became California's first charter management organization (CMO) to gain state approval to operate its own teacher credentialing program. And now the CMO has launched the High Tech High Graduate School of Education, which is the first of its kind in the country. The new graduate school will award master's degrees in teacher leadership and school leadership. It also recently applied to the state for authority to start its own program to help teachers with preliminary credentials earn full teaching licenses. Beyond growing its own staff members, the CMO is hoping to inspire other charter organizations and plans to train teachers and principals working at like-minded schools outside the network.
Source: Education Week (subscription required), (07/18/2007)
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