New Charters in 2012?

Could it really be...?



The Raleigh News & Observer reports today that the State Board of Education might actually consider allowing a few new charter schools to open their doors in the fall of 2012 after all.  Heres' the link:

http://projects.newsobserver.com/node/22710

Believe it or not, they may actually be serious about this.  A plan for reviewing 'fast track' charter school applications has been written and is on the board's agenda for the August 31-September 1 meeting.  You can see the plan here: 

http://www.ncpublicschools.org/docs/stateboard/meetings/2011/09/lfi/09lfi01.pdf

In brief, the idea is to have the newly formed Public Charter School Advisory Council review existing applications that would have been approved last go-around, had there been no cap, and make recommendations to the board as to which of these should be approved for 2012.  Existing schools that want to convert to charters would also be allowed to submit fast track applications, as would currently successful charter schools that wanted to replicate or spin off another campus. 

There are a lot of things that could still derail this move, of course, starting with the board's discussion and vote next week.  As anyone who has spent any time observing the operations of the board knows, very little of substance ever happens in an open board meeting; the real decisions having already been made in private beforehand.  And of course, the advisory council that would have to review all the applications doesn't actually exist yet, so...yeah. 

Still, this is the best charter news to come from the state board since...well, it's the only good charter news that Charter Guy can ever remember coming from the board.