January 28, 2011
Palladium-Item
Opponents of charter schools in Indiana are saddled with a fundamental weakness in their argument against expansion of educational choices. They must persuade the public, and members of the Indiana General Assembly, that parents aren’t qualified to select the best learning environment for their children.
After all, parents aren’t forced to ship their children to charters. They choose to do so. …
Now, the General Assembly is debating whether more families should have the option of choosing a charter for their families. House Speaker Brian Bosma and other key legislators from both parties are pushing a bill that could greatly expand the number of charter schools in Indiana. Only 62 charters now operate in the state, in part because Statehouse Democrats used their majority in the House to attack educational options.
The legislation would give authority to a host of new sponsors, including a new state charter school board, mayors in cities of more than 35,000 people, and private, nonprofit universities.
Opponents are aghast that private universities would be allowed to sponsor charters. That’s another tough argument for the opposition to win.
However, one component of the legislation, although well intended, does present a problem. The bill would require districts to rent vacant school buildings to charters for only $1 a year. It’s certainly a challenge for charter school organizers to raise capital to obtain and often renovate buildings, but the state shouldn’t take away school boards’ ability to make decisions about how best to use public properties.
With that weakness noted, and with the understanding that charters are by no means a panacea to what ails this state’s educational system, the legislation deserves strong public support.
SOURCE: Palladium-Item,
Sunday, January 30, 2011
Sunday, January 23, 2011
Minnesota ranks first in 2011 charter school law rankings
January 23, 2011
Alexandria Echo Press
Minnesota has the nation’s strongest charter school law for the second year in a row, according to the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools’ second annual ranking of state charter school laws.
Mississippi’s new charter school law ranked last.
Measuring Up to the Model: A Ranking of State Public Charter School Laws analyzes the country’s 41 state charter laws and scores how well each supports charter school quality and growth based on the 20 essential components from the Alliance’s model charter school law.
“Minnesota tops the chart most notably because of its laws promoting quality and funding equity for charter schools,” said report author Todd Ziebarth, vice president of state advocacy and support, National Alliance for Public Charter Schools. “However, legislators could do more to ensure equitable access to capital funding and facilities for charter schools.”
Minnesota enacted the nation’s first charter school law in 1991. In 2009, Minnesota enacted a “second generation” charter school law that addressed a comprehensive series of measures to strengthen the accountability of authorizers, schools, and boards of directors as well as to enhance the innovation within charter schools.
“Our ongoing effort has been to enhance accountability, quality and innovation in Minnesota’s charter schools and authorizers – so we are extremely pleased to see that, for a second year in a row, Minnesota’s charter school law is ranked first in the nation, especially as we celebrate the 20th anniversary of the enactment of Minnesota’s first in the nation charter school law. The first in the nation ranking, however, does not mean that we cannot continue to improve our law. In fact, we will be introducing a number of proposals during this legislative session to continue to promote quality and accountability,” said Eugene Piccolo, Executive Director of the Minnesota Association of Charter Schools.
The new report captures all the legislative moves states made to be more competitive under the U.S. Department of Education’s Race to the Top program. As a result of positive policy changes made over the past year, Florida made the biggest jump from 2010, moving from number 11 to second place. Because of charter schools legislation passed in 2010, Massachusetts also made a jump, from number six to third place. And, the charter school legislation New York enacted in 2010 moved it from number eight to number five.
Conversely, the District of Columbia tumbled the furthest from 2010, dropping from the second to the eighth place. In addition, California fell from the third to the sixth position, Georgia fell from fourth to seventh, and Utah dipped from seventh to tenth.
As a new crop of governors and legislators prepare for the upcoming legislative sessions, the rankings provide clear indications of where some states excel and others come up short in charter school laws and offer a positive roadmap for how governors and legislators can take action to strengthen their charter school laws.
“High-quality charter schools start with strong charter school laws. Our state charter law rankings describe how laws can ensure charter schools are able to innovate in ways that boost student achievement while being held to high standards of academic, fiscal, and operational performance,” explained Peter C. Groff, president and CEO, National Alliance for Public Charter Schools. “The rankings and the model law developed by the Alliance and other key stakeholders are moving lawmakers in key states to make positive policy changes.”
The 10 states with laws shown to best support the growth of high-quality charter schools are: Minnesota, Florida, Massachusetts, Colorado, New York, California, Georgia, District of Columbia, Louisiana and Utah.
The report also found that 24 states and the District of Columbia still have caps that impede the growth of charter schools. In nine of these states, such caps are severely constraining growth: Arkansas, Connecticut, Hawaii, Idaho, Mississippi, Missouri, New Hampshire, North Carolina and Ohio. More than 420,000 students across the country are hoping for an additional seat at a charter school and there is no correlation between caps and school quality or student achievement. “These states should remove their arbitrary restrictions on charter growth,” added Ziebarth.
In addition, 10 states have still failed to enact a charter school law: Alabama, Kentucky, Maine, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Vermont, Washington, and West Virginia.
The complete analysis can be downloaded at the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools web site: www.publiccharters.org/charterlawrankings2011 . See detailed state-by-state summaries and color-coded maps of how states measure against each component at the http://charterlaws.publiccharters.org.
For more information on Minnesota’s charter schools, visit the MN Association of Charter Schools website: www.mncharterschools.org
SOURCE: Echo Press
Alexandria Echo Press
Minnesota has the nation’s strongest charter school law for the second year in a row, according to the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools’ second annual ranking of state charter school laws.
Mississippi’s new charter school law ranked last.
Measuring Up to the Model: A Ranking of State Public Charter School Laws analyzes the country’s 41 state charter laws and scores how well each supports charter school quality and growth based on the 20 essential components from the Alliance’s model charter school law.
“Minnesota tops the chart most notably because of its laws promoting quality and funding equity for charter schools,” said report author Todd Ziebarth, vice president of state advocacy and support, National Alliance for Public Charter Schools. “However, legislators could do more to ensure equitable access to capital funding and facilities for charter schools.”
Minnesota enacted the nation’s first charter school law in 1991. In 2009, Minnesota enacted a “second generation” charter school law that addressed a comprehensive series of measures to strengthen the accountability of authorizers, schools, and boards of directors as well as to enhance the innovation within charter schools.
“Our ongoing effort has been to enhance accountability, quality and innovation in Minnesota’s charter schools and authorizers – so we are extremely pleased to see that, for a second year in a row, Minnesota’s charter school law is ranked first in the nation, especially as we celebrate the 20th anniversary of the enactment of Minnesota’s first in the nation charter school law. The first in the nation ranking, however, does not mean that we cannot continue to improve our law. In fact, we will be introducing a number of proposals during this legislative session to continue to promote quality and accountability,” said Eugene Piccolo, Executive Director of the Minnesota Association of Charter Schools.
The new report captures all the legislative moves states made to be more competitive under the U.S. Department of Education’s Race to the Top program. As a result of positive policy changes made over the past year, Florida made the biggest jump from 2010, moving from number 11 to second place. Because of charter schools legislation passed in 2010, Massachusetts also made a jump, from number six to third place. And, the charter school legislation New York enacted in 2010 moved it from number eight to number five.
Conversely, the District of Columbia tumbled the furthest from 2010, dropping from the second to the eighth place. In addition, California fell from the third to the sixth position, Georgia fell from fourth to seventh, and Utah dipped from seventh to tenth.
As a new crop of governors and legislators prepare for the upcoming legislative sessions, the rankings provide clear indications of where some states excel and others come up short in charter school laws and offer a positive roadmap for how governors and legislators can take action to strengthen their charter school laws.
“High-quality charter schools start with strong charter school laws. Our state charter law rankings describe how laws can ensure charter schools are able to innovate in ways that boost student achievement while being held to high standards of academic, fiscal, and operational performance,” explained Peter C. Groff, president and CEO, National Alliance for Public Charter Schools. “The rankings and the model law developed by the Alliance and other key stakeholders are moving lawmakers in key states to make positive policy changes.”
The 10 states with laws shown to best support the growth of high-quality charter schools are: Minnesota, Florida, Massachusetts, Colorado, New York, California, Georgia, District of Columbia, Louisiana and Utah.
The report also found that 24 states and the District of Columbia still have caps that impede the growth of charter schools. In nine of these states, such caps are severely constraining growth: Arkansas, Connecticut, Hawaii, Idaho, Mississippi, Missouri, New Hampshire, North Carolina and Ohio. More than 420,000 students across the country are hoping for an additional seat at a charter school and there is no correlation between caps and school quality or student achievement. “These states should remove their arbitrary restrictions on charter growth,” added Ziebarth.
In addition, 10 states have still failed to enact a charter school law: Alabama, Kentucky, Maine, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Vermont, Washington, and West Virginia.
The complete analysis can be downloaded at the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools web site: www.publiccharters.org/charterlawrankings2011 . See detailed state-by-state summaries and color-coded maps of how states measure against each component at the http://charterlaws.publiccharters.org.
For more information on Minnesota’s charter schools, visit the MN Association of Charter Schools website: www.mncharterschools.org
SOURCE: Echo Press
D.C. Charter School Laws Earn an ‘A’
By Deborah SimmonsJanuary 12, 2011
The Washington Times
Education-reform group cites city, underscoring Rhee’s efforts
As unions move to organize charter-school employees, former D.C. Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee rolled out a taut school-reform agenda that pushes charter expansion and public-private vouchers, and she said the untold number of charter teachers she has encountered are not “interested in joining a union.”
Ms. Rhee‘s proposal and comments came as the District of Columbia won the No. 1 spot for its charter-school laws, which are touted in a new Center for Education Reform study for supporting school and teacher autonomy. Ms. Rhee supported those efforts as chancellor by pushing union roadblocks aside to institute groundbreaking reforms and broaden school choice.
“I am in favor of employees being able to organize. That said, I’ve met significant numbers of charter-school teachers, none of whom are interested in joining a union,” Ms. Rhee, now head of an organization called Students First, told The Washington Times. “Rather, they are focused on working with the students, parents and administrators in their school to create the best learning environment possible. Work rules and tenure are the least of their concerns.”
Those learning environments, which often include longer school days and weekend classes, are least restrictive when teachers and administrators are free of traditional red tape and parents are encouraged to select the best academic fit for their children.
Labor organizers already wield influence in charter schools in several states, such as New York and New Jersey, as well as Florida, California, Illinois and Michigan.
But charter schools and “union shackles” are incompatible, Jeanne Allen, president of the Center for Education Reform, said Wednesday.
“In states where charters are not granted the freedom and flexibility to provide innovative learning environments for their students, they are not able to fulfill their intended purpose,” Ms. Allen said.
“This is especially true when it comes to their staff. Teachers should be allowed to achieve success in the classroom free of union contracts that could restrict extended school days or additional instruction. At the same time, charters should be empowered to identify and remove staff who are not making the grade for kids. Union shackles are at odds with the nature of charter schools,” she said.
The new study reviewed 40 states and the District of Columbia on their charter-school laws, and graded them on the number of authorizers, schools allowed, fiscal equity and operations, including autonomy, teacher freedom and union influence.
D.C. charter laws ranked No. 1 on all criteria, with two other jurisdictions — second-place Minnesota and third-place California — also earning an A. Minnesota was the first state to establish charter schools, doing so in 1991.
Virginia ranked 40th out of 41, one of four states to earn an F — the others being Kansas, Iowa and Mississippi.
Maryland wasn’t much better — placing 35th, or seventh from bottom.
New York ranked as the seventh strongest even though its “union-forced rules dominate some aspects of charter [school] contracts,” the report said.
But the state got good marks because it raised its cap on the number of charter schools in 2010, grants a blanket waiver on most centralized rules and regulations, and grants limited autonomy based on individual schools’ enrollment numbers.
A total of 14 states earned a C, largely attributed to funding inequities and the lack of autonomy. For example, while New Jersey’s laws allow teachers in new charter schools to negotiate contracts as a unit or as individuals, teachers in traditional schools that convert to charters retain collective-bargaining agreements and their schools must participate in the state’s retirement system.
With Ms. Rhee looking on Wednesday, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie called union demands problematic for school reform and fiscal responsibility.
Promising to push merit pay, end tenure and expand charters, the Republican governor said in his State of the State address, “Teaching can no longer be the only profession where you have no rewards for excellence and no consequences for failure to perform.”
He also vowed to trim the rising costs of union pensions, which he called “this cloud that hangs over us and almost every state in the union.”
Ms. Rhee, who implemented a teacher-evaluation plan that continues to draw heavy union criticism, is an educational adviser to top officials in New Jersey, Florida and several other states.
SOURCE: The Washington Times
Friday, January 14, 2011
Jindal Proposes business-operated charter schools
January 13, 2011
Monroe News Star
Louisiana businesses could start their own charter schools that give preference to children of their employees under legislation to be proposed by Gov. Bobby Jindal.
The governor surprised state lawmakers Wednesday in announcing at the Louisiana Association of Business and Industry’s annual meeting that he will propose such legislation in this year’s legislative session. It’s modeled after Florida’s “charter schools in the workplace” initiative and has been implemented in other states.
“This new business-charter school partnership legislation will help feed the pipeline of qualified workers for Louisiana businesses while creating important career opportunities for students,” the governor said. “Ensuring that every Louisiana student has a great education is the critical foundation to helping our children pursue the career of their dreams.”
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