Forward movement?
The West Virginia Supreme Court this week lifted a lower court’s stay on the establishment of charter schools in the state. Implementation of the five previously-approved charters for next school year is allowed to go forward again while “broader legal issues” are considered before the Supreme Court.
Further legislation
Additional charter-related bills are currently being heard in the West Virginia legislature, including SB 644, which would create a charter school stimulus fund to help organizations trying to open charter schools to afford start-up costs or facilities upgrades needed prior to opening. The bill passed out of the state Senate’s Education Committee last week.
The view from Tennessee
Current law in Tennessee requires charter schools to apply to the area school board for permission to operate. As a last resort upon rejection, operators can appeal to the Tennessee Public Charter School Commission. A new bill proposes to limit the amount of rejections local boards are allowed to make and would put the commission front and center for the approval of new charter schools should that limit be reached. That bill passed out of its state’s Senate Education Committee last week.
Yet more research
The 74 covers two recent research reports looking at both the direct effects and the competitive effects of charter schools on student learning. Both are highly positive. A third research report, also covered by the 74 this week, looks mainly at the difference between private and traditional district schools’ responses to pandemic education disruptions. However, charter schools were also cited for positive responses, including providing more synchronous virtual lessons and more real-time one-on-one virtual supports than did traditional districts.
The view from New York parents
The founding president of the Chinese American Citizens Alliance of Greater New York published a strongly-worded op-ed in City Journal calling for more charter schools in the Empire State. “All neighborhoods, of every race and ethnicity, need more charter schools,” she writes, “in order to provide families with viable alternative options. If Governor Hochul and the state legislature don’t want to admit that the house is burning, they can at least open the doors and let the children go.”
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