Quality
A new blog post from Fordham’s Aaron Churchill provides a vital look at Ohio’s Quality Community School Support Fund. Included in the last biennial budget, it provides eligible charter schools supplemental dollars—sorely needed given the funding gap between charters and traditional district schools—to increase their ability to serve more students. This is a great primer on how the program has worked in its first two years.
Red flags
While President Biden’s nominee for Secretary of Education seems to have garnered approval across the board ahead of his confirmation, Biden’s nominee for Deputy Secretary has not been as well received. Charter school leaders and the NAACP in San Diego argue that Cindy Marten’s track record as superintendent of San Diego Unified School District contains a number of red flags for their constituents.
Obstacles
A new issue brief from the Pacific Research Institute, titled “New and Emerging Obstacles Facing Charter Schools”, provides some stark details of the playing field on which charter schools are competing today. Despite research that shows strong benefits of charter schools for students of color across the country, lawmakers in many states have enshrined in statute “handicaps” that will likely hinder efforts to serve more students.
Celebration
National School Choice Week starts on January 24! The national kickoff event will be held virtually on January 25 at noon ET. You can register to attend here. Observances in Ohio include a virtual school choice fair for families in the Toledo area on January 30, hosted by the good folks at the Northwest Ohio Scholarship Fund. And you can find the entire list of online events, observances, and activities on the NSCW website.
Conference
Registration is now open for the 2021 National Charter Schools Conference, to be held virtually June 20-23. The dynamic event will include plenty of opportunities to meet with peers across the country, exchange ideas, and make new connections important to your work. Click here to register today.
