Author Archive: Sue Legg

Washington’s Charter Shell Game and Another Lawsuit

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justiceThe League is in a new lawsuit in the state of Washington.  Charters were approved by the voters in 2012, but the League of Women Voters called the move unconstitutional.  The Charter School Case filed by the League et al in 2013 was appealed all the way to the state’s Supreme Court.  In 2015, the Court ruled that charter schools violated the Washington constitution.  Charters were not public schools.  In order for the legislature to fund charters, they must be governed by elected school boards, and of course, they were not.

The  legislature was not deterred.

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Charter School Parents Have No Rights

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justiceIn charter schools, parents may have choice but no rights.  What does this mean?  In this brief from the American Bar Association, the rights that parents assume they have are valid for public schools but not charters.  According to recent court decisions in a California Appeals Court and a U.S. District Court in Hawaii, charters have the right to dismiss students in a manner that would be unconstitutional in a regular public school.

As the number of charters grows, charter parents need to beware.

 

 

 

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Suspension Happy Charter Schools

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childrenCharter schools represent 7% of New York City’s school population  but 42% of all student suspensions.  Of the top 50 schools with high suspension rates, 48 were charters.  These schools are clustered in the heart of black communities in Harlem, Crown Heights, Brownsville and Brooklyn.  The problem extends far beyond New York.  Parents are pushing back.

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Local Control Issue Finds Tennessee

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by Anne-Marie Farmer

in the Voter from Nashville League of Women Voters

In response to the Nashville school board’s denial of the Great Hearts Academies charter application, the Tennessee legislature passed the state charter authorizer law, which gave the State Board of Education (SBOE) the power to authorize and oversee a potential charter school whose application was rejected by the local school board. Last year, the SBOE used this authority for the first time, overriding a decision by local officials in Nashville to deny the application for an additional KIPP charter school. That means that, while the funding for the additional KIPP school will come primarily from local funds, the school will not be under the supervision and authority of the local school district, but instead be accountable only to the SBOE. Another charter appeal, currently pending before the SBOE, will test whether the SBOE intends to expand its role in opening charter schools over the objection of the local school district.  This is an important test.

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Charters: ‘Summer of our Discontent’

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curriculum plate-413157_1280I just read an exceptionally candid lament from the charter school industry.  In response to a summer of miserable news about the charter movement, Steve Zimmerman, Co-Director of the Coalition of Community Charter Schools states:

The truth is that there have been a slew of scandals…..concentrated in states that, in their haste to provide market-based reforms,  did not provide strong charter oversight and failed to keep foxes out of the proximity of chickens.  

But my greater concern is…

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A Coming Crisis

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IMG_0466There is always an undercurrent of skepticism about ‘looming crises’.   It is likely, however, that the predicted teacher shortages may be real.  According to the Learning Policy Institute, the causes include:  declining enrollment in teacher preparation programs, districts’ return to smaller class sizes after the recession, increasing student enrollments, and high teacher attrition.  What would help?

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Judge Denies Children Access to Fourth Grade

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FAILED1Judge Gievers upheld the Opt-Out parents complaint against districts who denied promotion to children who signed in to take the Florida Standards Assessment this spring.  She did not, however, require districts to promote those children without completing a portfolio to demonstrate their proficiency.  Some parents withdrew their children from school.  Some used a portfolio option.  The problem for at least one parent is that the portfolio option required scores on other tests to be included.  Since the entire promotion process is under review in the appeals court, Judge Gievers has decided that the courts need time to ponder.  Maybe she is correct.  Let’s consider the implications of her decision.

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PBS Airs Show on Florida Education

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From Pat  Hall

 

florida-this-weekPat wanted you to know about a special edition of Rob Lorei’s Florida This Week.  This show is on education and airs THURSDAY (not the usual Friday show) at 9 PM on PBS.  One of the panelists is Liana Fox who reports that she plugged the League’s work on charter schools.  Here is a link that lists the rest of the  impressive line-up.

The PBS station airs in the Hillsborough County area.