Public Charter Schools Publication RSS Feed

2009-State-Legislative-Session-Highlights

adminUser — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Most states have now wrapped up their legislative sessions. While the comments in favor of public charter schools by President Obama and Secretary Duncan have been quite helpful for charters, the current economic recession created one of the most challenging state policy environments in years. Within this environment, the primary goal of many state charter advocates has been to defend what they already have, while still trying to make positive changes where possible.

Thus far, charter advocates have won more battles than we lost, a notable accomplishment given the tough state policy environment facing us. Below is a summary by major issue where charters have won and lost as well as where battles are still undecided. Following this summary, we provide more detailed wrap?ups for each state.

Download a complete breakdown of the summary of the 2009 Session Highlights:

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2011-State-Legislative-Session-Summary

charter — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 00:00:00 GMT

This document was presented at the 2011 National Charter Schools Conference by Todd Ziebarth, vice president, state advocacy and support and Liza Grover, senior director, state advocacy and support.

In the past year, public charter schools have garnered intense national scrutiny. Working in our favor, we’ve had increased political support from the Obama Administration, new pro-public charter school majorities in state capitols, and several recently appointed state superintendents of education that back charters. We’ve also had increased media attention from the likes of The Oprah Winfrey Show and the release of the films Waiting for Superman and The Lottery.

Notwithstanding these positive factors, we’ve also faced significant challenges as we’ve navigated the turbulent waters of charter school advocacy at the state level. Most significantly, state budgets remain strained, leaving lawmakers little room to make big financial investments in charter schools (such as through new dollars for charter facilities costs). We also still face well-funded opposition that is looking to stymie charters by imposing caps and moratoria, cutting funding, and re-regulating the operation of charter schools.

Thus far, charter school advocates have been able to achieve many positive policy gains, with several more potentially on the way before the year is finished. We have also been able to play strong defense against efforts to roll back previously made gains.

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A-New-Model-Law-for-Supporting-the-Growth-of-High-Quality-Public-Charter-Schools

adminUser — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 00:00:00 GMT

It has been 18 years since Minnesota passed the nation's first public charter school law, and public charter schools have become a prominent feature of public education serving more than 1.5 million students in over 4,900 schools in 40 states and the District of Columbia.

With the number of public charter schools and students steadily growing û and the body of evidence documenting their success mounting û legislative battles over charter laws are intensifying. As charter supporters fight these battles, the time is right for a new model law that supports more and better public charter schools based upon lessons learned from experience, research, and analysis.

Our intent in developing this new law was to create a resource useful for guiding the 41 jurisdictions with charter laws as well as the 10 states that have yet to enact a charter law.

New! State Charter Law Rankings Database

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A-State-Policymaker's-Guide-to-Alternative-Authorizers-of-Charter-Schools

adminUser — Thu, 01 Sep 2005 00:00:00 GMT

This issue brief from the Education Commission of the States is designed to help policymakers think through what kind of alternative authorizing structures may make sense for their states.

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Accelerating-the-Success-of-Kansas-Charter-Schools

adminUser — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Thirteen years after a charter school law was enacted in Kansas, these innovative public schools have yet to take root in the Sunflower State. The purpose of this issue brief is to provide an analysis of those areas of the charter school law in Kansas that need to be strengthened to create the conditions for success for the state's public charter schools.

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An-Accident-of-History:-Breaking-the-District-Monopoly-on-Public-School-Facilities

charter — Thu, 12 Jul 2012 00:00:00 GMT

Traditional public school districts hold a monopoly over the financing and ownership of public education facilities. With rare exceptions, public charter schools have no legal claim to these buildings. This monopoly is an accident of history. It would never have developed had there been substantial numbers of other public schools, not supervised by traditional districts, when public school facilities laws were written. The district model of facilities planning is not suited to a diverse portfolio of autonomous schools with distinct programs and life-cycles that require different spaces at different times.

What public charter schools currently receive in facilities aid is simply inadequate. Of the 42 jurisdictions with charter laws, only 17 provide any kind of direct facilities aid, either capital grants or per pupil funding, and just three of those provide per-pupil capital funding of more than $1,000. The status quo is costly both to public charter schools, which must use operating dollars to pay for facilities expenses, and to districts, which pay inordinate amounts to maintain vacant facilities and lose potential rental income in the process.

Certain principles should guide the creation of a new system: It must serve all the children in a given community; treat all public schools as equal competitors for available space; make school performance an element in decisions about occupancy; only require payment for space if public facilities dollars are provided to schools; and free educators (in both charters and traditional schools) to focus on student achievement rather than facilities.

Change must begin in the state capital by ensuring charters equitable access to both existing space and any state facilities revenue streams. Local leaders should make school facilities a municipal concern, rather than leaving it to school district officials. States and municipalities should consider at least three options for professional, third-party management of the public education facilities portfolio: real estate trusts; municipal construction authorities; and contracts with nonprofit corporations.

The transition to new modes of ownership and financing will take time—but there is no excuse for inaction on facilities inequities, even within the current legal framework.

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Borrowing-With-Tax-Exempt-Bonds,-Second-Edition

charter — Mon, 09 Jul 2012 00:00:00 GMT

The public charter school movement has evolved for two decades, yet the challenge of securing affordable facilities continues to confront nearly every charter school. The landscape of solutions now includes government-sponsored, private sector, and collaborative programs that provide facilities or facilities financing. Borrowing through the issuance of tax-exempt bonds has emerged as an effective option to obtain low-cost facilities financing.

Nonprofit corporations have borrowed money using tax-exempt bonds for decades. As the tax-exempt bond market has experienced a substantial expansion in the types of nonprofits using such financing (previously dominated by hospitals and universities), individual public charter schools and groups of commonly managed public charter schools are borrowing on a tax-exempt basis. Since 1998, over 400 public charter schools have borrowed over $5 billion using tax-exempt bonds.1 Bond market access has been spurred by increasing demand for facilities, better understanding of the benefits of tax-exempt financing, and greater market acceptance of public charter school credits. Not only large, established public charter school management organizations (CMOs) with substantial financial resources need apply, but also relatively small, even start-up, public charter schools with limited credit history may be financeable under certain circumstances.

Written by: Eugene H. Clark-Herrera in collaboration with Maria C. Sazon

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Charter-School-Law-Deskbook

adminUser — Fri, 15 May 2009 00:00:00 GMT

The 2008-2009 edition of the Charter School Law Deskbook by Paul T. O'Neill and Todd Ziebarth published by Matthew Bender & Company, Inc. is available for purchase online at the LexisNexis Store: http://www.lexisnexis.com/store/us/

"This book is an essential resource for anyone dealing with the laws governing public charter schools," said National Alliance for Public Charter Schools President and CEO Nelson Smith. "The latest edition provides at-a-glance information tables that make it easy for users to compare how different states treat charter schools in statute and regulation."

The Charter School Law Deskbook is a complete reference guide to charter school laws in the United States. It is designed to provide policymakers, school leaders, and anyone interested in the charter school movement with the tools they need to evaluate and compare current state laws.New to the 2008-2009 edition:

ò State by State Tables: detailing each state's charter school environment. These tables include descriptions of how each state's law addresses such matters as funding, facilities, staffing, authorizing, and special education in an easy-to-read format.
ò 50-state Chart: allows for comparison from state to state on a number of important variables including caps on charter school growth, state reporting expectations, and teacher certification requirements.
ò CD-Rom: provides an electronic, fully searchable version of the book.

About the authors: Paul T. O'Neill is an education attorney, professor and author. He is President of Tugboat Education Services, which provides regulatory assistance to education organizations, and is Of Counsel to the New York firm of Cohen Schneider LLP. Mr. O'Neill spent several years as Senior Vice President, Chief Regulatory Officer and head education attorney for Edison Schools, the national school management and services organization. He now serves as a Senior Fellow in Edison's Learning Institute, where he focuses on scholarship and engagement with core education reform issues.

Todd Ziebarth is the Vice President for Policy at the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, a national nonprofit organization committed to increasing the number of high-performing charter schools available to all families, particularly those low-income and minority families who currently don't have access to quality public schools.

More Publications+

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Delaware-District-and-Charter-Revenue-Analysis

adminUser — Tue, 02 May 2006 00:00:00 GMT

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Delivering-on-the-Promise:-How-Missouri-Can-Grow-Excellent,-Accountable-Public-Charter-Schools

charter — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 00:00:00 GMT

The report is a clear analysis of Missouri’s charter school sector. It offers recommendations to improve the quality of schools by creating rigorous approval systems that will allow for accountable, high-performing public charter schools. Report author Nelson Smith, senior advisor, National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, examines the development and status of Missouri's public charter school sector using the following indicators: academic performance, policy environment, finance and support.

The report also takes a pronounced stance on the need to close Missouri's lowest-performing public charter schools that are not increasing student achievement.

Missouri's current charter law limits chartering to Kansas City and St. Louis. There are families in the state's suburban and rural districts that need and want other public-school options. Two options have been suggested as steps toward the kind of statewide charter law now found in 39 other states. They include limiting new growth to unaccredited districts and allowing charters at least in the immediate school districts around St. Louis and Kansas City.

Click here to read the report's official press release from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation.

Click on the PDF icon below to download the full report.

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How-State-Charter-Laws-Rank-Against-The-New-Model-Public-Charter-School-Law

adminUser — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 00:00:00 GMT

It's very important to have better, clearer charter laws û laws that enable innovation, promote transparency about how charter schools perform and how they are held accountable, and provide fair access to public funds and facilities. We're encouraged that the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools supports creation of better charter school laws as models of learning, and we encourage authorizers to hold charters accountable for student performance.

-U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, January 2010

Dear Colleague:

I'm writing to share with you How State Charter Laws Rank Against the New Model Public Charter School Law, a new resource from the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools.

In June 2009, the Alliance released A New Model Law For Supporting The Growth of High-Quality Public Charter Schools. Lawmakers and advocates in numerous states are using it to inform their efforts to enact a charter law for the first time, while those states with existing charter laws have it on hand as a roadmap to improve certain aspects of their status quo.

Soon after the release of the model law, we began receiving questions from these folks about how their existing charter laws stack up against the model law, particularly in light of the role of public charter schools in the U.S. Department of Education's $4 billion Race to the Top (RTTT) competitive grant program. They also wanted to know who had the strongest laws, especially in the critical areas of authorizing, accountability, funding, and facilities. We henceforth enlisted the individuals who helped craft the model law, rolled up our sleeves, and started analyzing and ranking existing laws.

The result is this report, the first to accurately gauge a state's public charter school law with respect to its commitment to the full range of values in the public charter school movement: quality and accountability, funding equity, facilities support, autonomy, and growth and choice. This report looks at each individual state that has a charter school law, assesses the strengths of its law against the 20 essential components of the model law, and ranks them from 1 to 40.

It is closely aligned with the original intent of public charter school law, which is to establish independent public schools that are allowed to be more innovative and are held accountable for improved student achievement.

We hope the report is useful to lawmakers and advocates in the 40 jurisdictions with charter laws as they work to improve them as well as to those in the 11 states without laws as they push to enact them. We look forward to supporting them in the months and years ahead in this important work. We hope you find it to be a valuable guide in your work.

Register to attend the official policy briefing event describing the report findings and their relation to the U.S. Department of Education's Race to the Top competition.

Visit the new State Charter Law Rankings Database

Read the Alliance's June 2009 release, A New Model Law for Supporting the Growth of High-Quality Public Charter Schools.

Sincerely,

Todd Ziebarth

Vice President, Policy

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Measuring-Up-to-the-Model:-A-Ranking-of-State-Charter-School-Laws

charter — Tue, 29 Jan 2013 00:00:00 GMT

The National Alliance for Public Charter Schools (NAPCS) is pleased to release its annual rankings of state charter school laws across the country, which found that many states took significant steps to strengthen their state laws. The report, and the NAPCS model charter school law it is based upon, is designed to support the creation of high-quality public charter schools, particularly for those students most in need of better public school options.

The rankings now include 43 states and the District of Columbia, due to Washington state voters for the first time ever approving a statewide charter school initiative last fall. This leaves eight states that have still failed to enact a charter school law: Alabama, Kentucky, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Vermont and West Virginia.

Now in its fourth year, Measuring Up to the Model: A Ranking of State Public Charter School Laws ranks each of the country’s 43 state charter school laws. Each state receives a score on its law’s strength based on the 20 essential components from the NAPCS model law, which include measuring quality and accountability, equitable access to funding and facilities and limited caps on charter school growth.

The top 10 states with laws best positioned to support the growth of high-quality charter schools are: Minnesota which this year recaptured the top spot, followed by Maine, Washington, Colorado, Florida, Louisiana, California, New York, Indiana and New Mexico. Rounding out the bottom of the list, the five states with the weakest charter school laws include: Mississippi, which continued its hold as having the nation’s worst charter school law, followed by Maryland, Kansas, Alaska and Virginia.

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Measuring-Up-to-the-Model:-A-Ranking-of-State-Charter-School-Laws,-2012

charter — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 00:00:00 GMT

2011 has been a significant year for charter school policy across the country.

At long last, Maine enacted a charter school law, becoming the 42nd jurisdiction that allows this innovative public school option.

Ten states lifted their caps on charter school growth (either partially or entirely). Most notably, North Carolina eliminated its cap of 100 charter schools, Michigan phased out its cap on the number of charter schools that can be approved by public universities, and Indiana and Wisconsin removed their limits on virtual charter school enrollment.

Seven states strengthened their authorizing environments. Most significantly, four states created new statewide charter boards (Illinois, Indiana, Maine, and Nevada), while New Mexico and Rhode Island passed major quality control measures setting the stage for the future growth of high-quality public charter schools in these states.

Ten states improved their support for charter school funding and facilities. Of particular note, Indiana enacted legislation that creates a charter school facilities assistance program to make grants and loans to charter schools, appropriates $17 million to this program, and requires school districts to make vacant space available to public charter schools to lease for $1 a year or to buy for $1. Also, Texas enacted a law that allows state-authorized charter schools that have an investment grade rating and meet certain financial criteria to apply to have their bonds guaranteed by the Permanent School Fund.

As of this writing, there were bills with major charter school improvements pending in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. In addition, we expect to see big pushes for strong legislation in several other states in 2012.

What’s most encouraging about the charter school movement’s legislative efforts is that they’re more frequently marrying growth and quality. As we’ve long argued at NAPCS, the longterm viability of the charter school movement is primarily dependent on the quality of the charter schools that open. It’s critical that state lawmakers recognize the importance of charter school quality – and the impact that their laws have on it. We are glad to see that they are increasingly doing so.

We hope this report, and the model law it is based upon, continue to be useful tools to charter school supporters as they push for laws that support the creation of more high-quality public charter schools, particularly for those students most in need of a better public school option.

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New-Jersey-Suffers-from-Severe-Inequities-in-Funding

adminUser — Mon, 01 May 2006 00:00:00 GMT

Public charter schools in New Jersey receive nearly a quarter less in revenue per pupil than the state's traditional school districts, according to a new report released today by the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools. The data pinpoints Newark and Trenton charter schools as facing the most severe inequities in the state, with each receiving 44 percent and 38 percent less, respectively, per pupil than the cities' school districts.

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Peeling-the-Lid-Off-State-Imposed-Charter-School-Caps

adminUser — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 00:00:00 GMT

Parental demand for high-performing public charter schools is going unmet in 25 states and the District of Columbia, where some type of limit, or cap, is constraining charter school growth. According to an Issue Brief released today by the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools (Alliance), while some states have made progress in amending their charter school restrictions, progress as a whole has been slow.

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Toward-an-Equitable-Future:-Charter-Schools-and-School-Funding-Litigation

diana — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 00:00:00 GMT

At the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools (NAPCS), we are working to ensure that public charter schools are equitably funded and that charter schools have appropriate access to the legal system to ensure equality.

To support these charter school efforts, we are releasing this issue brief titled Toward an Equitable Future: Charter Schools and School-Funding Litigation. The brief provides actionable advice for charter schools and charter support organizations as they consider challenging funding allocations and other decisions in court. The brief was authored in partnership with Andrew Broy, the President of the Illinois Network of Charter Schools, and is intended to share practical lessons related to the charter funding landscape and to encourage charter advocates to examine litigation as a potential strategy to achieve funding equity.

The NAPCS continues to release timely, actionable issue briefs and is working with many individual charter schools and charter support organizations on litigation as a complement to ongoing advocacy efforts. In the next year, we expect increased involvement in several states on litigation efforts, with a particular focus on achieving funding equity for public charter school students.

Please feel free to contact Renita Thukral, our Senior Director of Legal Affairs, at 202-521-2831 or renita@publiccharters.org if you have questions. I appreciate your time and continued support of our work and the public charter school movement.

It is with great pleasure that we share these findings and recommendations with legal practitioners and the education community who should reference them, confidently, to better inform their work.

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Turning-the-Corner-to-Quality:-Policy-Guidelines-for-Ohio-Charter-School-Program

adminUser — Wed, 11 Oct 2006 00:00:00 GMT

Responding to a request from top Ohio elected officials, the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, the National Association of Charter School Authorizers, and the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools prepared this report, which sets forth 17 recommendations to make Ohio's charter school program the strongest in the nation. The research team, coordinated by Public Impact and including Louann Bierlein Palmer, Michelle Godard Terrell, Bryan Hassel, and Peter Svahn, helped these three organizations examine documents, interview officials, review news accounts, plumb data sources, and canvass the country for promising ideas that could be useful to Ohio policymakers.

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