Stories featured in Ohio Charter News Weekly may require a paid subscription to read in full.
Heading to SCOTUS
The efforts of the Catholic Archdiocese of Oklahoma City and the Diocese of Tulsa to establish St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School, which would be the first religious charter school in the country, have been going on for years now, including extensive legal wrangling that ended with a loss for school leaders in Oklahoma’s Supreme Court. Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear the case, which means a judgment that could settle the issue once and for all might well be forthcoming.
Implications
Thomas B. Fordham Institute president Mike Petrilli weighed in with his take on the implications of the impending U.S. Supreme Court case. “Many of the headlines refer to whether states ‘can’ or ‘may’ allow religious charter schools. But that’s not the question at all,” he writes. “No, the question for the Court is whether states that allow secular charter schools must allow religious charter schools, too.” And given recent court precedents, he concludes, “it seems very likely that SCOTUS will say yes” to that question. Andy Smarick, senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, agrees with Petrilli on that count. But he goes on to say in his “Governing Right” entry on Substack, that this will be the right decision when it occurs. “Faith-based chartering is among the most interesting school-policy issues of the last half-century,” he writes. “It forces us to reckon with peculiar but foundational education choices made by officials 150 years ago. It goes to the heart of American pluralism, localism, and civil society. And perhaps most importantly, it requires that we define ‘public’ education.” He provides a detailed argument, and ends with the belief that a Yes from the court would be “sensible, good for schooling, and good for America.”
Cleveland charter school growth improves the community
The leaders of Breakthrough Schools submitted plans to Cleveland’s Planning Department this week detailing a huge upgrade of their Woodland Hills Campus. Included in the effort are a 10,000-square-foot gymnasium and multipurpose facility, an expanded administrative wing, and extensive outdoor recreational and educational amenities. Even better, steps are being taken to make the spaces usable by community members and groups outside of school hours. Work should begin soon after the needed permits are issued.
Transformation indeed
Leaders of the Cleveland Transformation Alliance (CTA) this week announced that the organization—formed in 2012 as part of the voter-approved Cleveland Plan—will cease operation in March, saying that CTA has largely achieved its foundational goals. These included assessing the quality of all Cleveland schools, guiding families through school choice, monitoring the growth of charter schools, and holding the Cleveland Metropolitan School District to the other tenets of the Plan. “It’s important that we use this moment to take stock of the great progress that we’ve made,” said Cleveland mayor Justin Bibb (also the chair of CTA’s board), “but also evaluate what kind of collaboration is needed to position [CMSD] for the future. It’s important that we really, as leaders in this space, continue to vet how we move forward given all these headwinds that we’re seeing at the federal and state level.” It is noted in this coverage that some aspects of the work will continue, although details are scarce.
The view from D.C.
Terry Eakin, former board member of the Washington, D.C. Charter School Alliance, published an editorial in The 74 this week, criticizing a district council proposal aimed at improving the quality of charter school boards—and the oversight they provide for their schools. The bill is a response to the sudden closure of a charter school in the district just before school started last August, but Eakin argues that it focuses on the wrong things and ignores the research showing that charter networks (specifically, those with at least 3 schools in their portfolio) gave kids 50 more days of math learning and 12 more days of reading than their district peers. He says that the city should “continue to encourage high-performing stand-alone charters to replicate and successful charter networks to grow. And it should attract proven out-of-town providers to bring their educational programs to the District.”
*****
Did you know you can have every edition of the Ohio Charter News Weekly sent directly to your Inbox? Subscribe by clicking here.
