Ed Next lives up to its mission statement ? ?in the stormy seas of school reform? giving voice (without fear or favor) to worthy research, sound ideas, and responsible arguments?? ? with its new ?forum? on Charter Management Organizations.
In The $500 Million Question: Can Charter Management Organizations Deliver Quality Education At Scale? Robin Lake of the University of Washington's Center on Reinventing Public Education (CRPE) and Charter School Growth Fund (CSGF) CEO Kevin Hall, debate the merits and demerits of this charter school growth industry. ?(See this post from OhioFlypaper for a closer look at one part of the debate.)
Hall is, naturally, a booster; Lake, a scholarly skeptic.? But there's enough money in the CMO?donor pipeline these days ? the $500 million of the question refers to the estimated annual philanthropic investment in CMOs ? to make them a force in the choice movement. ?(The big foundations, says Lake, are no longer funding stand-alone charter school start-ups.)
As the charter school sector continues to mature ? more than 5,000 nationwide ? CMOs are playing an increasingly important role.? Lake estimates that there are now 400 CMO schools. But she also believes that ?The CMO business model is so far proving impossible to sustain on public funding alone.?
This is a lively and comprehensive punch/counterpunch?between Lake and Hall?? and?an important contribution to the charter school discussion.
?Peter Meyer, Bernard Lee Schwartz Policy Fellow
