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DEMAND NATIONALLY is partly fueled by parents who are dissatisfied with the curriculum offered to their children and are looking for “better options”, he said. After all, it’s how some of the boldest reforms were born, such as charter schools in Minnesota in 1991.
August marks the application deadline for anyone wanting to open a charter school in the state.
In an attempt to cut down on the number of Florida charter schools that close within a year of opening, a national organization has launched a new database filled with background information on charter school operators.
There’s a push to have more charter schools in your cities. Teach for America, which recruits recent college graduates for stints in charter schools, has been approached about providing instructors.
The proposal brings back the debate between supporters of traditional schools and backers of charter schools, which are also public schools but operate independently from local school districts.
“We looked at maps of L.A. and how many students are attending these schools and talked about what can we do about it”, he said.
The ruling means that the charter school is not required to provide student transportation.
Renaissance Charter School did not breach its contract with the school board by not providing transportation to the students.
Perhaps the biggest myth charter schools face today is that they aren’t accountable.
Unlike all other public schools, charters must be proactive in their efforts to stay open. The state Board of Education is now authorized to grant an initial certificate of approval, but it does not become a charter until the legislature budgets money for the school.
Overregulating charter schools would convert charters from autonomous, grassroots laboratories of innovation to the very schooling entities from which they seek to break away.
Youngsters from low-income families and minority communities tend to be served by charter schools, he said.
Almost 20 percent of all charter school closures occur because a school failed to meet acceptable student performance levels according to CER’s State of Charter Schools: What We Know – And What We Do Not – About Performance and Accountability.
Finally, the importance of a strong charter school law can not be understated in creating a vibrant charter school sector.
According to her group, more than 13,000 children in Boston are on charter wait lists and Lawrence, Holyoke, and Fall River are at the cap. In fact, seventy-three percent of Americans support the concept of charter schools.
They say the proposal would allow the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education to authorize up to 12 new charter schools or expansions of existing schools each year.
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Kara Kerwin is president of The Center for Education Reform.
