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Post-mortem
EdSurge gives us an interesting but slightly downbeat post-mortem following the U.S. Supreme Court’s deadlock in the St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School v. Drummond case. While the outcome feared by charter school supporters didn’t occur, there is concern that a similar case could arise from another state and start the whole argument of charters as private versus public entities again. Additionally, some commentators are concerned that charter school opponents could use one aspect of the result—blocking a proposed statewide virtual charter school—as ammunition to ramp up their efforts to block other charters elsewhere.
Caveats
Speaking of school choice opponents, the Chicago Public Schools board of education finally signed off this week on renewals for 21 charters in the city, ending five months of harsh rhetoric, anti-competitive rulemaking, and disruptive delays. At the same time, board members also approved a resolution that seeks to impose new requirements and oversight on charter school operators.
Meanwhile, in the City of Brotherly Love…
On a similar note, the mayorally-appointed board of the Philadelphia School District voted 8-1 this week to approve the first new charter school in the city since 2018. Even those who voted “aye” held their noses while doing so, with the Board President saying he had “serious and legitimate concerns” about Early College Charter High School despite voting in favor of the application.
And in Cali…
California Assembly Bill 84 is being pitched as a charter school accountability measure, introduced following a 2019 financial scandal involving a charter operator in San Diego. Charter school leaders in the Golden State, however, say it will cut their funding and cost them millions in additional audit expenses. Jerri Levers, executive director of Connecting Waters Charter Schools, took to the pages of the Modesto Bee this week to air her objections, focusing on non-traditional students largely served only by charters. “Our public education system should not discriminate based on governance models,” she writes. “A student is a student – whether they attend an independent study program at a public charter school or at a traditional school, and they should be funded the same.”
The calm after the storm
Charter schools in Indiana won big in the state’s recently-ended legislative session, although not every supportive proposal passed. And none of it happened without rancor between traditional districts and school choice proponents that Chalkbeat calls “a new low”. Incidents documented in this piece include threatening notes, false accusations of wrongdoing, and promises of political retribution against those who supported any aspect of school choice-friendly legislation. Said one Indiana Public Schools student: “I feel like the adults aren’t fighting for the kids at this point. They’re fighting for themselves.”
Wish world
A former Providence school board member opined in the Rhode Island Current this week that charter school teachers looking to unionize in the state should “be careful what you wish for”. Among Julia Steiny’s concerns: Financial requirements in state law that hold charters back from being able to provide higher salaries—all of which will still exert their negative force regardless of unionization status; the fact that teachers from one school are looking to affiliate with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Worker (IBEW) rather than the AFT (“Will the IBEW protect ineffective teachers?” Steiny asks. “Also, do they have the clout or will to endure a fight for fair funding? Hard to know.”); and the concern that even the AFT might not be willing to support charter teachers with the same rigor as district teachers. Sobering stuff.
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