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.
Last Chance! Share Your Feedback on the News Connection and Enter to Win Amazon.com Gift Certificate! Survey Concludes July 31
We would like your help to improve the Charter School News Connection and Monthly Resource Update. We are asking our readers to give us their feedback through a short online survey to better understand how you use these resources and gather your comments on their format and content. The five-minute survey has been developed by UScharterschools.org and the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, sponsor of the News Connection. Your contact information and the opinions you provide will not be used for commercial purposes, nor sold or released to third parties. Readers who complete the survey will be entered into a drawing to win a $100 gift certificate from Amazon.com! To complete the survey, clickhere. We value our readers' opinions and are asking that they complete the survey today!
Source: National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, (07/28/2008)
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Alliance Responds to Schott Foundation Report on Black Male Student Achievement
In light of the Schott Foundation report, "Given Half a Chance: 50 State Report on Public Education and Black Males," released last week, the National Alliance for Pubic Charter Schools issued a response detailing Black male student achievement in public charter schools. The Schott Foundation report, released at the Unity 08 Convention in Chicago, reveals that the public school system fails to educate more than one-half of Black males in the country. "Fifty years after Brown (v. Board of Education), less than 50 percent of African-American males are graduating high school," said John Jackson, President of the Schott Foundation. However, "attending a charter high school in Chicago increases a Black students chance of graduating from high school and enrolling in college, according to one of four studies summarized in “The Color of Success: Black Student Achievement in Public Charter Schools,” released by the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools earlier this month. The Alliance reports that in Chicago alone, four public charter schools are among several that have been outstanding successes in helping to improve academic performance among young Black male students. Nationally, public charter schools enroll a higher percentage of minority students (60% vs. 46%) and low-income students (52% vs. 40%) than traditional public schools. More than 4,300 public charter schools teach 1.2 million public school students in 40 states and Washington, D.C.
Source: National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, (07/28/2008)
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U.S. District Judge Rules Public Charter School Cannot Open Because it Fails to Meet Federal Desegregation Requirements
U.S. District Judge Robbie James has ruled that a northeast Louisiana public charter school, D'Arbonne Woods Charter School, cannot open because the school is too near a predominantly white community and that the school had a low minority population. State Sen. Mike Walsworth said he does not believe the school is attempting to get around desegregation laws. "I think that it is sad that past history still rings out in Union Parish and northeast Louisiana and that we can't let go of the past and look toward the future," he said. State charter schools director Ken Campbell said the school will have to develop more strategies for recruiting minority students and teachers to gain federal court approval. "I'd like to see them reach out a little bit more to meet the judge's satisfaction," Campbell said. "The commitment has always been there; sometimes it's just a matter of being better able to implement it." The board of the school will meet July 31 to decide its next move. If the school decided to appeal the ruling, even an expedited appeal would not allow the school to open this school year.
Source: The Times-Picayune, (07/27/2008)
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Green Public Charter Schools Gain Ground
Profiling Common Ground, a public charter school in New Haven that focuses on the urban environment, the New York Times reports that there are at least 120 public charters that put environmental topics at the center of their curriculum. The number has grown along with the expansion of the public charter school movement, says Senn Brown, executive director of the Green Charter Schools Network. The environmental theme is particularly popular among public charters, lending itself to the kind of interdisciplinary, project-based approaches to learning that public charters often employ. Recently opened public charter schools include the Springwater Environmental Sciences School, in a rural area bordering 500 acres of government-protected land in Oregon City, and the Michael Frome Academy, in Woodbury, Minnesota, which opens this fall with about 70 kindergarteners through third graders. The curriculum will focus on real-world projects related to the natural environment.
Source: New York Times (free registration required), (07/27/2008)
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Public Charter School Offers $125,000 Starting Salary
A New York City public charter school has garnered attention by offering teachers a starting salary of $125,000. The Equity Project (TEP) Charter School, a middle public charter school scheduled to open in September 2009, is founded upon the idea that providing "revolutionary compensation" will help attract and retain high-quality teachers. The school, founded by Zeke Vanderhoek, who is the school’s first principal, will serve students from low-income families. Vanderhoek and his team will spend over a year recruiting master teachers who fulfill its extensive qualifications. Applicants must score 90 percent or higher on a standardized test in a relevant subject area and in the verbal section of the GRE, GMAT, or LSAT, and provide significant examples of personal and student academic achievement. Selected applicants who strongly meet these qualifications will participate in both a preliminary and a complete application for live classroom auditions. TEP Teachers will work business-professional hours (9 a.m. to 6 p.m.), teach only one subject for one grade level, and be required to spend time each week leading an extra-curricular activity. They also will engage in and be subject to daily peer observation. Teachers will be expected to take on non-instructional roles, such as home visits director and school events coordinator.
Source: Teacher Magazine, (07/27/2008)
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Forbes Profiles Online Education Program Provider K-12
Forbes magazine recently profiled Ron Packard, the chief executive of K12, an online education company. Packard is adamant that he runs a public school. "We are more public than any other public school in the country," he says. "You don't have to buy a million-dollar house in the suburbs to come to my schools. We take every child who comes, regardless of income, race or ability." K12, with revenue of $140 million last year, operations in 21 states and the District of Columbia and an enrollment of 40,000, is the leader in the elementary and secondary online education market. Educators in the traditional public school system are leery of K12 and online education provision. Two years ago, the Chicago Teachers Union sued the Illinois State Board of Education in Circuit Court of Cook County, challenging the state's decision to send public education dollars to the not-for-profit Chicago Virtual Charter School. The union alleges that the school does not provide sufficient direct instruction by certified teachers and amounts to homeschooling at taxpayers' expense. The case is pending. Forbes predicts the fighting will only get louder with the $300 million market for online school-age education growing 30 percent a year, according to the North American Council for Online Learning.
Source: Forbes, (07/26/2008)
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Georgia District Embraces New Public Charter System Status
Georgia's Gainesville school system will start the school year on August 7 as one of four state-approved public charter school districts in Georgia. Merrianne Dyer, interim superintendent of Gainesville City Schools, said the Gainesville system was eager to be among the first public charter school districts in the state, and worked hard and fast to meet the spring application deadline. "I wish we could've had more time so people could fully understand what a charter school district is all about," she said. Dyer said academies are not mandated, but the public charter system does allow schools to create them. She said the district was already moving toward the public charter school model with its various academies, so the governance system primarily will be the biggest change for city schools this fall.
Source: Gainesville Times, (07/26/2008)
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Funds Found for Seven D.C. Public Charter School Conversions
D.C. district officials recently announced that they will use a $7.5 million education reserve fund to pay for the seven former Catholic schools slated to reopen as secular public charter schools in August. The D.C. Council had allocated $366 million in May for 63 public charter schools as part of its fiscal 2009 budget. Financing for the Center City Public Charter Schools was not included, however, because Center City's application was not approved by the public charter school board until June 16. The Catholic school conversions are unusual, district officials said, because most public charters spend 12 to 15 months between approval and opening to find buildings and employ staff. Center City's seven campuses are ready to accept students. Anticipated enrollment is 1,255 students, higher than the 1,094 originally forecast.
Source: Washington Post (free registration required), (07/25/2008)
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Former D.C. Mayor Marion Barry Working to Open Two Public Charter Schools
Former D.C. Mayor Marion Barry is working to open two public charter schools, one that would prepare students for health careers and one that would focus on leadership and entrepreneurial skills. Kent Amos, who runs the Community Academy Public Charter School, said he had been "working alongside" Barry, "trying to see how our combined interests" would meet. Barry said he has long supported public charter schools and that parents need options beyond traditional public schools. "I believe in choice -- choice for the parents and choice for me to decide what I am going to do," he said.
Source: Washington Post (free registration required), (07/24/2008)
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