NOTE: Ohio Charter News Weekly will not be published on 11/27 due to the Thanksgiving holiday. We will return on 12/4 with a new edition.
On hold
While there is still no decision on the approval of the first charter school application in West Virginia, the rhetoric recently ratcheted up with a disagreement over how long the Monongalia County school board had to vote on the application. The continued stalemate is likely indicative of the larger dynamics at play in the Mountain State.
More than ever
Robert Pondiscio published a blog on the The 74 Million recently where he proposes that charter schools—some of those long known for being scrappy fighters for quality education for urban children—are under assault from within. This assault takes a number of forms, which he lays out in detail. He hopes that new champions will emerge from within the sector, and without, because the same children who needed great charter schools before need them even more right now.
“Trivial”, but very consequential
New research released this week showed that the funding gap between traditional district and charter school grew substantially over the last 15 years. The research included federal, state, local, and philanthropic sources, but growing disparity was primarily attributed to a lack of funding for charters at the local level. Sobering news indeed.
Transportation in the time of corona
School transportation, always a bane for students utilizing educational choice, has been hard hit by coronavirus considerations in Ohio and beyond. A recent Dispatch story notes that even though Columbus City Schools is operating on a fully-remote model, their transportation department is still busing nearly 13,000 students to charter and private schools operating some in-person education around the city. And even this reduced load is becoming difficult for the system to manage due to drivers calling in sick or having to quarantine due to Covid exposure.
