Charter school celebrates its Seniors and Kindergarteners
On Wednesday, Horizon Science Academy hosted its third annual kindergarten and senior class commencement walk, where kindergarteners and seniors pair up and walk around campus together while being cheered on by their families, staff, and community officials. It’s an opportunity for the community to recognize their accomplishments, and the seniors in particular have a lot to celebrate—100 percent of the charter school’s senior class graduated and earned over $4 million in scholarships this year.
Ohio bill would end “right of first refusal” for charter schools
The Ohio Star recently published a story regarding House Bill 43, a bill that would eliminate the requirement for districts to offer unused buildings to high performing charter schools before selling them to other entities. Even though many Ohio school districts already work to hang on to their underutilized buildings, the passage of this bill—which isn’t as of yet making progress in the House—would be a major blow to a sector that already has too many facility challenges.
More on democratic support for charter schools
According to new data released to Chalkbeat, there’s a sharp racial divide among Democrats when it comes to charter schools. On the heels of a recent poll from Democrats for Education Reform, Education Next decided to take a look at their latest 2018 poll results by party and race. They found that support for charter schools among Democrats since 2016 has significantly decreased among whites, but not among blacks and Hispanics, though it’s unclear what exactly is driving the racial divide.
Legislative update
Neither the House nor the Senate Education Committees met this week, but there was plenty of education discussion in the Finance Subcommittee on Primary and Secondary Education. The subcommittee heard testimony this week on the biennial budget (HB 166), including charter-related testimony from Dave Cash (May 16), Cris Gulacy-Worrel (May 16), Tom Torkelson (May 15), Stephen Dyer (May 15), and Chad Aldis (May 14). You can read testimony from the hearings (by date) here.
Celebrating National Charter Schools Week
Nathan Barrett of the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools wrote a piece this week celebrating the accomplishments of charters across the country. Barrett discusses the latest research on charter school student performance and how charters are doing what they set out to do—improving educational opportunities for students.
