First look
Fordham’s Aaron Churchill this week published a first analysis of how the newly-implemented state budget bill will impact Ohio’s charter school sector. Increased funding overall is the headline, but a significant narrowing of the funding gap between charters and traditional district schools is an important highlight. Substantial changes in K–12 education governance and transportation policy will also likely benefit charter schools and their families.
Last look
Eric Gordon, the former CEO of Cleveland Metropolitan School District, gave a final interview to Patrick O’Donnell of The 74, published on Tuesday. Among many other topics, Gordon discussed the successes of the Cleveland Plan, which to him included partnering with high-quality charter schools via the Cleveland Transformation Alliance and how the portfolio model so built helped lead to improvements in charter governance for the entire state. He was far less positive about the impact of expanded voucher programs in the state on the quality of education in Cleveland.
The view from Toledo
Also bearish on the impact of expanded vouchers in Ohio is the editorial board of the Toledo Blade. In an editorial published Sunday, the ed board expressed acceptance of the big education changes wrought by the state budget, and positivity toward increased funding for traditional district and public charter schools. But vouchers, they say, have the possibility to undermine all public schools. “A strong economy and sufficient state budget have made it easy to fully fund public education and create new private education options,” they opine. “The true test will come when the budget is tight. Vouchers are popular but public education is required and must come first.” This feels like quite a change of tone in terms of charter school support in Northwest Ohio. Another (tiny) piece of evidence for the turning tide in Toledo: Despite some community members’ wishes, a planning and zoning committee did not vote down a permit request needed to allow a charter school expansion on the city’s east side. The committee didn’t recommend approval of the permit either, but several members spoke highly of the school and its growth plan and the full body allowed the request to move on to the full city council for a final decision. This is a change from several years ago when another zoning committee was weaponized against another charter school, which ended up closing due to the inability to expand.
The view from North Carolina
A similar situation is playing out altogether more contentiously in the Tar Heel State. Back in 2020, a residential developer included a charter school in its plans for a new neighborhood in Wake Forest. The Board of Commissioners rejected the plan, officially citing concerns about a lack of pedestrian and bicycle connectivity from the new neighborhood to established ones nearby, but the developers contended that charter school opponents had influenced the commissioners to make their decision. The case has been tied up in court since then and will be heard in the North Carolina Supreme Court. The good news is that the school was able to locate in another jurisdiction close by without problem; the even better news is that some high profile support for the charter operator has come in the form of a friend-of-the-court brief from the North Carolina Home Builders Association.
The view from Pennsylvania’s information superhighway
House Bill 1422 passed out of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives this week with enough bipartisan support that proponents believe it could eventually become law. The bill would enact a series of reforms in the cyber charter sector in the Keystone State, including a standardized per-pupil funding amount, closure of what many consider to be a “loophole” regarding students with special needs, and increased accountability by means of stringent rules of conduct for governing board members and administrators, and more transparency in the form of more-detailed and more-regular audits. HB 1422 moves on to the Senate.
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