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.
Ten Public Charter High Schools Among Newsweek Magazine's Top 100 Best High Schools
Newsweek magazine has named ten public charter high schools among the top 100 best high schools in the nation. The is significant because public charter schools currently comprise only approximately three percent of all public schools nationwide and are more likely to enroll students from disadvantaged communities than traditional public high schools. BASIS Charter School in Tucson, Arizona was cited as the nation’s top-ranked high school in the survey. "While only about three percent of all schools, ten public charters made the top 100, demonstrating that the charter school principles of accountability and innovation are producing remarkable results,” said National Alliance for Public Charter Schools President Nelson Smith. "We congratulate the students and teachers of BASIS Charter School and the other nine public charter high schools for their achievement." The annual Challenge Index Rating is based on the total number of Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate or Cambridge tests given at a divided by the number of seniors graduating.
Source: Newsweek, (05/27/2008)
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NY Times Profiles Lottery Event at the SEED School of Maryland
Thousands of children remain on waiting lists for public charter schools around the country. And every year many more families wait anxiously to find out if their children win the enrollment lotteries. New York Times journalist Thomas Friedman profiles a public charter school lottery event in which the first 80 students who will attend a new public charter boarding school, the SEED School of Maryland, were chosen. The SEED Foundation launched its first public charter school 10 years ago in Washington, D.C., as the nation's first college-prep, public, urban boarding school. The vast majority of students served by the two programs are African-American, drawn from the most poverty-blighted, disadvantaged school districts. "I am so hopeful about the school and just so overwhelmingly anxious about what happens to the students who don't get in," said Dawn Lewis, the head of the SEED Maryland school. "During the six or seven months of recruiting, we heard all the stories of all the problems these kids are confronting in their schools, and each time [parents] would tell us, 'This kind of school is the answer - the thing this child needs to be successful.' When we were completing the applications, we received so many letters from guidance counselors and teachers and principals and even pastors saying, 'Please, just exempt this kid from the lottery - because without this, there is no chance for this kid, there may not be another opportunity.'" Friedman concludes his essay with this statement: "There are so many good reasons to finish our nation-building in Iraq and resume our nation-building in America, but none more than this: There's something wrong when so much of an American child's future is riding on the bounce of a ping-pong ball."
Source: New York Times (free registration required), (05/25/2008)
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Imagine Schools Expands in Florida
Imagine Schools, an education management company, is expanding in Florida. The company manages 51 schools across the country and it views south Florida as ripe for spreading its educational philosophy of parental involvement, individualized teaching, and character development. Company officials say the slow economy is helping to fuel its growth. Tough times are leading many parents who pay to put their children in private schools, or home-school them, to enroll their children in Imagine schools because tuition is paid for with state tax dollars, said Karl Huber, a development director for Imagine. A district official, Manatee schools spokeswoman Margi Nanney, said she believes district schools provide more programs and opportunities for students than most public charter schools, but she welcomes more choices for parents. "If you feel like your child would do better in a school like that, then you should consider that option," she said.
Source: Herald Tribune, (05/22/2008)
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New Resource Center Planned in Arkansas to Assist Rural Public Charter Schools and Districts
University of Central Arkansas President Lu Hardin announced last week that a Walton foundation grant of $426,141 will be used to plan for and develop an Arkansas Public School Resource Center. The establishment of the partnership between the Walton foundation and UCA follows the closure in January of the Arkansas Charter School Resource Center, also a Walton foundation-funded operation, at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville. The new center will assist both public charter schools and traditional public school districts in rural communities.
Source: Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, (05/22/2008)
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New Public Charter Schools in Pennsylvania Receive Approval
Last week the Philadelphia School Reform Commission voted 5-0 to conditionally approve seven more public charter schools to open in the 2009-10 school year. Previously, Cathy Balsley, director of the district's Office of Charter Schools, recommended that officials reject all 15 applications that sought to open public charters this fall, due to financial and other reasons. Commission officials said they went ahead and approved the applications they deemed strongest - those with sound educational plans, clear mission statements and solid business plans. Sandra Dungee Glenn, SRC chairwoman, said that the seven approved applications meshed with district priorities, such as planning to locate where schools are most needed and offering academic programs that give high school students more options. The commission stressed that none of the schools will open in fall 2009 if the district lacks the funding to support them. SRC member James Gallagher said the decision to approve some applications and not others was "painful." He suggested to those who had submitted applications to visit Harrisburg to lobby members of the General Assembly to increase funding for public charter schools. "The bottom line is, if you don't have money to pay for something, you don't get it," he said. "If there's no cookies in the cookie jar, you don't get any cookies . . . That's pretty harsh."
Source: Philadelphia Daily News, (05/22/2008)
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Lack of Funding Closes New Hampshire's First Public Charter School
While New Hampshire's lawmakers are negotiating ways to boost funding for the state's public charter schools, the Franklin Career Academy, the state's first public charter school, is closing because of financial challenges. The school which worked with at-risk high school students in a community that had one of the state's highest dropout rate had faced financial struggles since it opened in 2004. Last week, director Bill Grimm told the school's 30 students that they need to find another school to attend next fall because the school will close this summer for good. The school had operated almost entirely on state funds, which now amount to $3,800 per student. That figure would rise to $6,500 under the pending public charter school finance legislation, but Grimm said that increase would not be enough to run the school properly. He estimated his operating costs at about $8,000 per student."They knew what the deal was, so it wasn't like some great epiphany," said Grimm. "What we wanted to do was not wait any longer because we thought they have to make a decision."
Source: Boston Globe, (05/21/2008)
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Georgia Allows One District to Convert System Entirely to Public Charters
The Georgia State Board of Education has decided to allow only one out of five applicant school systems to convert entirely to public charter schools. Board members said they were concerned that the other four districts were not giving enough power to each school to write their own budgets and hire teachers, a key component of the state's public charter school laws. The four districts — Decatur city, Chattahoochee County, Gainesville city and Marietta city — have until the board's June 12 meeting to change their applications. Warren County was approved to convert its three schools to public charters. Some state board members said they likely will not approve the other applications even if revisions are made because the districts refuse to accept a fundamental piece of creating a public charter school — reducing the role of school boards and superintendents in running schools. "I really don't believe power is being given to these schools in these petitions," board member Mary Sue Polleys said.
Source: Atlanta Journal Constitution, (05/20/2008)
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Countdown to New Orleans: National Charter Schools Conference Less Than One Week Away (June 22-25)
The National Alliance for Public Charter Schools will host the 2008 National Charter Schools Conference from June 22-25 in New Orleans, LA. "Still We Rise: Achieving Academic Excellence at Scale" is the conference theme, reflecting the growth of quality public charter schools across America. The theme has special resonance in New Orleans, which boasts the nation's largest percentage of public charter school enrollment. Register for the conference or apply to sponsor/exhibit at http://www.nationalcharterconference.org. The conference is the largest gathering of charter school operators and proponents in the nation. Major speakers at the conference include Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, U.S. Senator Mary Landrieu, actor and education activist Danny Glover, Alliance President Nelson Smith and Geoffrey Canada, President and Chief Executive Officer for the Harlem Children's Zone. Attendees will learn and share best practices, discuss national and state policy issues, have the opportunity to volunteer at local charter schools, and enjoy special events featuring New Orleans traditions, food and music! Questions? Call 206-463-3344 or e-mail nationalconference@publiccharters.org.
Source: National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, (03/01/2008)
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