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Editorial boards speak
There were two important commentaries from newspaper editorial boards published this week. First up: The Toledo Blade discussed the findings of Fordham’s latest report on the editorial page, citing the strong achievement boosts observed for students in brick-and-mortar charter schools versus their traditional district peers. “Oddly,” the editors write, “though charter school choice has been an undisputed benefit to the residents of urban school districts, Democrats who dominate the urban districts — like Toledo — have not been fans of the concept, preferring to require that underperforming public schools continue to have a monopoly on the urban environment.” Wow! Same theme on the editorial pages of the Seattle Times, where despite long-standing opposition charter schools are starting to show “promising results”, especially for the Black students who attend. The biggest problem in Washington State right now, says the editorial board, is the hard cap on charters in the state. And despite the heavily Democratic makeup of the state legislature (“and the influence of the anti-charter teachers union within it”), the editors urge a lifting of the cap to allow more successful schools to take root in the Evergreen State.
Ohio study on for-profit charter management organizations
Ohio State University professor Stéphane Lavertu and his research colleague Long Tran published a new paper in the Journal of Policy Management and Analysis recently, examining the impact of nonprofit charter schools which subcontract daily operations to for-profit management organizations on student achievement and attendance. Their results indicate that such charter schools are, on average, at least as effective as nearby traditional district schools, and that the average low-achieving student experiences greater test-score gains in charters with for-profit operators than their peers in traditional district school. However, charter schools with for-profit operators tend to be less effective than other charters nearby, particularly for students with high test scores and low absence rates. Fascinating stuff. Check it out!
The future of public funding for religiously-affiliated schools
Joshua Dunn, executive director of the University of Tennessee, Knoxville’s Institute of American Civics, wrote a piece for EdNext in response to the Oklahoma Supreme Court ruling against the launch of a virtual charter school run by the Catholic Diocese of Oklahoma City. He considers the matter over in the Sooner State for now, but says that the state supreme court’s “inscrutable reasoning on the First Amendment’s establishment and free exercise clauses indicate” that the issue means that the issues will rise again—either in Oklahoma or elsewhere—and will need to be settled ultimately by the U.S. Supreme Court. Meanwhile, Fordham’s Mike Petrilli, noting himself to be a “lapsed Catholic”, opined that public funding going to religious schools of choice via ESAs and vouchers is a good way to ease ongoing culture wars around education, as long as certain guardrails such as targeted funding and accountability remain part of the equation.
Ambitious pilot program in Philly
Philadelphia mayor Cherelle Parker recently announced a plan to launch extended-day and -year school schedules in a select group of schools starting this fall. “When it comes to public education our goals are high, and they must be,” she said at a press conference. This includes a longer school day (7:30 a.m. through 6:00 p.m. Monday through Friday) and a longer school year (meaning, largely, that schools will be open on half days, winter and spring breaks, and other times that schools are traditionally closed). All this, she said, without making more work for teachers. The pilot program will begin this August in 20 Philadelphia School District buildings (elementary only) and five charter schools whose grade levels reach up to middle and high school. Here’s hoping this provides better support for children and families.
Virtual event with Starlee Coleman
Starlee Coleman, the incoming president and CEO of the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, will be interviewed live as part of Bellwether’s Summer Series of virtual events, Wednesday, July 10 at 1:00 pm ET. Ms. Coleman will be interviewed by Bellwether managing partner Mary Wells, discussing her long career in politics, advocacy, and communications; what she learned during her time running the Texas Public Charter Schools Association; and what's next for the charter sector amid a rapidly changing political environment. More information and registration for the event can be found here.
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