From their cold, dead fingers...

Charter school advocates who are hoping that the election of a new governor in 2012 will usher in a  pro-charter era in state government need to take a close look at the details of the new Public Charter School Advisory Council which the state board of education is slooooooooowly putting together.  Those stalwart guardians of the education status quo have written the rules for the new council in such a way that anti-charter appointees will continue to dominate it for years.  The details can be found here:

http://sbepolicy.dpi.state.nc.us/

In brief, the council will be made up of 15 members and will have only advisory functions; the state board will remain in complete control of all aspects of charter school policy.  The governor will appoint a majority of the members (8), while the Speaker of the House and the President Pro Tem of the Senate will each get to nominate three members.  The Superintendent of Public Instruction will nominate the final member.

We know what kind of lackeys our current governor plans to fill the board with, and we can assume that the superintendent's lone nominee will be no charter supporter either.  That's nine reliably anti-charter votes to start with.  Assuming that our legislative leaders nominate only pro-charter candidates for the six seats they control on the council, the council will begin life with a 9-6 anti-charter majority. 

You might think that simply electing a pro-charter governor (and superintendent) in 2012 would solve the problem, and it would--but not right away. 

That's because the people our current officials are appointing to the council are going to be serving for a long time yet to come--most of them for four years.  To make matters worse, the terms of these initial appointees are staggered in such a way that the governor's and superintendent's picks serve longer terms than those nominated by the legislators.

Six of the governor's picks will serve full four year terms, as will the superintendent's choice.  One of the governor's appointees will serve for three years, and the last one for only two.  That means that even if  the governor is replaced with a pro-charter candidate in 2012, there will only be one opening on the council in 2013 and one in 2014 for the new governor to fill.

And that's assuming that the state board really does get the council up and running before the end of this year.  If the board can somehow delay the official launching of the council until January 1, 2012 or later, you can add one year to those earliest replacement dates above. 

There's more mischief in the details.  The governor is not required to pick anyone with any knowledge of or experience in charter schools.  In fact, her appointees don't even have to pretend to be supportive of charter schools.  The legislative nominees are just that--nominees.  They must apparently be approved by the full board before being seated.  And two of them must be either district school board members or employees of district schools. 

All this goes to show that the legislature can pass all the laws they want to, but if they don't keep a close watch on how the bureaucracy is implementing those laws they don't do a bit of good. 

Legislative Update

One of the many fine breakout sessions at the Charter School Conference put on by the North Carolina Alliance for Public Charter Schools in early August was this one on charter school legislation http://www.nccharters.org/2012conference/2011-breakout-sessions/ .  Click on the line under "Handouts" that says "charter schools briefing."

The short presentation gives an overview of what happened with Senate Bill 8 in the late session, what we achieved, where we fell short, and where we went backwards.  It concludes with a look at where charters stand now in the areas of governance, application standards, growth, and funding. 

Clearly, there is a lot of political work ahead for charter supporters if the movement is to survive.  The briefing's last slide is a call to arms of sort, quoting from President Andrew Jackson's farewell address to the nation in March of 1837.  It reads:

"But you must remember, my fellow-citizens, that eternal vigilance by the people is the price of liberty, and that you must pay the price if you wish to secure the blessing.  It behooves you, therefore, to be watchful in your States as well as in the Federal Government."

The governor's stealthy new cap

This short article in the Raleigh News & Observer, a reliably anti-charter publication, shows that the editors are at least aware now of the scheme by the Governor's office (and thus, by extension, the State Board of Education) to prevent any new charter schools from being authorized until 2013. 

Charter School Backers are Wary of Perdue

http://www.newsobserver.com/2011/08/14/1411366/charter-schools-backers-are-wary.html

A few years back the state board adopted a policy requiring that once an application for a charter is approved, the applicant group must then spend a year in planning before being allowed to open its school.  It's a good policy.  But it appears that Perdue wants to use this policy to delay the opening of any new charter schools for at least two years. 

There was quite a bit of competition for the last charter available under the old cap of 100 schools.  Charter Guy has been told that there are a number of excellent applications in the Office of Charter Schools that have already been thoroughly reviewed, and had there been more charters available under the cap some of these would surely have been approved.  So, now that there is no cap, why not revisit and approve them now? 

Because that would start the one-year planning clock running, in time for the schools to open their doors in the fall of 2012.  And that is exactly what Perdue and her minions on the board want to avoid. 

Senator Richard Stevens, sponsor of the bill that removed the cap, has said that he'll be watching the board's actions (see August 10th, "Got my eye on you, man!").  Charter advocates should be watching him, and holding him to his pledge. 

For the anti-charter crowd, it's always a full moon

They're howling mad over charters

Just in case anyone in the public charter schools movement was unclear about the level of vitriol that charter-haters are ready to employ, or unsure about how low they're willing to sink to denigrate, discredit, and defame charter schools, a quick glance at www.Charterschoolscandals.blogspot.com will clear up the confusion.  As the name implies, the blog is:

"A compilation of news articles about charter schools which have been charged with, or are highly suspected of, tampering with admissions, grades, attendance and testing; misuse of funds and embezzlement; engaging in nepotism and conflicts of interest; engaging in complicated and shady real estate deals; and/or have been engaging in other questionable, unethical, borderline-legal, or illegal activities. This is also a record of charter school instability and other unsavory tidbits."

Of course none of these things ever happen in traditional district-run schools, right? 

Uh-huh.

It would be easy to dismiss the blog as ridiculous, almost to the point of being amusing.  But as you peruse the blog for cheap chuckles, keep this in mind.  Every time a story about real or suspected irregularities in admissions, testing, handling of funds, etc., makes it into print, the image of public charter schools is tarnished.  And that tarnish hurts our case when we're fighting the anti-charter establishment in the General Assembly and the State Board of Education for better laws or equitable funding.  

Charter school boards, administrators, and teachers have a tremendous responsibility, not just to run their schools in accordance with the spirit and letter of the law, but to make sure the public understands that's what they are doing.  It's not good enough to just be doing things right; charter schools must be seen to be doing things right.

In addition, charter schools must have an effective program of media relations.  They must be willing and capable of working with local media to respond quickly and professionally to any emerging threat to the school's public image.  The charter school board president or principal who doesn't have a good working relationship with the education beat reporters in his or her area is falling down on the job. 

The anti-charter establishment will do everything it can to frustrate and impede the growth of quality charter schools, and they are not above using things like the Charter Schools Scandal blog to press their case with the public.  We can't stop them from taking their shots.  But we can make it very difficult for them to find ammunition. 

~Update~

August 14th

Turns out, the anti-charter crowd in North Carolina has its own version of the Charter School Scandals blog.   Viewers of www.nceducationpolicy.com can find just about every anti-charter myth, half-truth, and discredited 'study' used in the recent debates over Senate Bill 8, all in one convenient place.  Run by lobbyists for traditional school district intrests, the site also offers helpful links to what it considers "edgroups," such as NCAE and the NEA, and "friends" such as Blue NC (the Democratic Party's website) and Progressive Pulse, a far-left website. 

The site does not appear to have been updated in recent months, or roughly since Senate Bill 8 passed. 

A board of their own

Not everything in our nation's capital is a steaming mess.  Just as in North Carolina, D.C.'s public charter schools are outperforming their traditional counterparts.  The editors of the Washington Post think they know why.  You see, Washington's charter schools are governed by their own board, and in the Post's opinion that board...

"...deserves credit for its insistence on successful outcomes.  The board’s willingness to shut down schools that don’t perform — more than a third of schools since the start of charter reform — not only weeds out failing schools but helps set the bar higher for those that stay open."

Now, what was one of the main objections the anti-charter crowd had to an independent governing body for public charter schools?  Something about foxes guarding henhouses? 

And D.C.'s charters aren't just picking the low-hanging fruit either:

"Particularly striking was the performance of charters serving neighborhoods in economic distress; in some cases those schools actually outperformed schools in more affluent areas of the city."

The editorial goes on to give several examples.  You can read it all at the link below.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/rising-test-scores-show-what-dc-charter-schools-can-achieve/2011/08/03/gIQAtU3K7I_story.html

Got my eye on you, man!

Two new charters won't be enough

This article by Sara Burrows in today's Carolina Journal Online shows that pro-charter Republicans in the Senate are finally getting wise to the dangers of an anti-charter State Board of Education.

Charter School Backers Worry About Gov's Picks to Council
http://www.carolinajournal.com/exclusives/display_exclusive.html?id=8110

Readers will recall that Senate Bill 8 called on the state board to establish a charter school advisory council to do the board's dirty work of developing new charter school policies, recommending new standards for applications, revocations, renewals, and so forth.  Without any independent powers of its own the council will be advisory in nature only. 

Still, charter advocates had hoped to have enough pro-charter members on the council to keep the proceedings honest.  But the plan of organization approved by the board last week only requires that two of the sixteen council members have experience with charters.  The governor will appoint a majority of the members, and we can expect that all of her appointments will reflect her negative views on charter schools.   

Clearly the plan is to use a stacked council to stiffle the growth of charters.  But it may not be that easy.  Check out Senator Richard Steven's reaction:

“We expect to see some new charters,” Stevens said. “So if we get 50 quality applications and [the council] approves two, we’ll be back talking to them in [next year’s] short session.”

“We believe in good faith they will honor the new law and allow the cap fully to be lifted,” Stevens said. “Sometimes there’s a big difference between a law being passed and how the administrators deal with it.”

It's good to know someone is watching with a critical eye. 

Timing is everything, or, 'That was then, this is now'

Just when you thought it was safe to read the editorial page again.  From the Greensboro News & Record...

Editorial: No building funds for charter schools

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

(Updated 3:05 am)           

 

"Charter schools are generally a good deal for North Carolina because they offer K-12 educational alternatives and they save taxpayers money (italics Charter Guy's)." 

 

Nice of them to say so, don't you think?  After months of hearing charter schools denounced by the anti-charter crowd as a scheme to 'drain money away from public education' or as 'a luxury we can't afford in these difficult times' at least one major North Carolina paper finally gets the fiscal math right.  Charter Guy thinks this may be the first time that anyone from the anti-charter crowd has publicly acknowledged the fact that charter schools save taxpayer dollars. But you couldn't drag that admission out of them during the debate over Senate Bill 8.   

 

So are the editors of the News & Record getting smarter about charters?  More conscientious in their reporting, perhaps? 

 

Read on...

 

"The legislature could rewrite the law to allow for public funding of charter school buildings, but at what price? Counties are burdened by capital costs already. Forcing them to build charter schools would hurt taxpayers and kill one of the chief benefits these schools provide, namely a less-expensive alternative. (italics Charter Guy's)"

Notice the rhetorical slight-of-hand there?  Yesterday we couldn't possibly afford more charter schools, but today those same schools are so cost-effective we dare not alter their funding scheme, lest we "kill one of the chief benefits these schools provide..."

You can read the whole thing here:  http://www.news-record.com/content/2011/08/08/article/editorial_no_building_funds_for_charter_schools