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Charters on the rise in Cleveland – pt. 1
Signal Cleveland brings us a terrific, in-depth look at four new charter schools coming to Cleveland—two this fall and two more in 2027. The leaders of each school are given plenty of room to describe the educational missions driving them, and it makes for fascinating reading. FORWARD Girls Leadership Academy, for example, is modeled after several well-known all-girls private schools, studied extensively by FORWARD founder Luciana Gilmore. “What I found to be very much the same in each of the schools that I have visited is the instruction is no different than what you would see in a traditional school,” she says. “It is the culture that they are creating for the children that they are serving that is different…they are teaching children to be leaders.” Best wishes and much success to all the students and school staffers!
Charters on the rise in Cleveland – pt. 2
In a second piece published this week, Signal Cleveland’s Franziska Wild focuses on two organizations that have been working diligently to make sure the new choices coming online in northeast Ohio are of high quality and are providing as many of those innovative educational models as possible. They include the local organization Future Ready Cleveland and national nonprofit City Fund.
Survival?
American Enterprise Institute research fellow Daniel Buck this week asks the question “Can charter schools survive universal school choice?” By which he means the burgeoning of private school vouchers and ESA programs. The question arises from a new survey of more than 280 charter school leaders from Arizona, Florida, and Utah where ESAs in particular are well-established. Nearly half of the respondents predicted student enrollment losses in the sector, and a large number of them believe it is because the public has a “growing perception” that private and microschool models offer more flexibility and autonomy than charters do. Buck’s question doesn’t have an answer just yet, but the mood across the board is downbeat.
A dubious plan
While charter schools face numerous new challenges from the private school sector, let’s not forget that the longstanding animus toward them from traditional districts has not abated to any great degree. Case in point, Sarasota County Schools’ sweeping plan to avoid having any charters take up space in underutilized district buildings in spite of the state’s “Schools of Hope” initiative. In this recent coverage, superintendent Terry Connor says he is pleased with the district’s efforts to deny charter school expansion in Sarasota so far. That plan calls for a lot of building consolidation, closures, and demolitions. All in the name of not having any underutilized space for competitors to “take over”.
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