Free Republic

For years, charter school advocates have said their schools operate on less money per student than traditional public schools. But a recent study commissioned by the Texas Education Agency has indicated the opposite. Charter schools received more money per student — $8,045 — than regular public schools — $8,028 — in 2003, according to the study by the nonprofit group Texas Center for Educational Research. Charter advocates disputed the results, saying the study omitted construction money. Public schools generally fund construction with bonds or with state construction aid. Charter schools pay for buildings with general operating budgets. And the study...

Opponents of education vouchers like to say they prefer "public school choice" known as charters. But even that claim often turns out to be an illusion under pressure from teachers unions. Consider what's happening in Connecticut, where Republican Governor M. Jodi Rell is resisting charter expansion despite their notable success in the state. Charter schools -- which are free from many of the union work-rule constraints imposed on regular public schools -- have been allowed in Connecticut since 1997, and there are now 14 of them.... If charter middle schools were treated as a single school district, it would lead...

California's experiment with charter schools just got a substantial boost from reports that classroom-based charters were a third more likely to meet academic improvement goals last year than traditional public schools. And the newest charter schools are posting academic gains on par with the most experienced. Although charter school advocates have long sung the praises of these quasi-independent public schools, finding acceptance in the mainstream has proven more elusive. That may be about to change. Researchers from the independent education policy organization EdSource just weighed in on charters' academic prowess, giving the publicly funded, independent schools a cautious thumbs up....

By William W. Lawrence A Second Thoughts salute to Michael F.X. Gillin who rates hugs and kisses from a lot of Chester parents whose kids are finally getting a chance to learn. Mike, who heads the Newtown GOP, chairs the board of the wildly successful and ever-expanding Chester Community Charter School, which may be that besieged city's first ray of light in decades. It's so successful in acquiring students and raising PSSA scores, some are asking if the Chester-Upland District can survive. A better question would be "why should it?"Mike, have you considered starting a charter school for Marple Newtown?...

When Western Pennsylvania's first cyber charter school opened five school years ago, Nick Trombetta -- who was both Midland School District superintendent and head of the new school -- expected only a small number of students. Instead, the public charter school started with more than 500 and has grown to nearly 3,000, setting off a statewide phenomenon in the process. Pennsylvania now has 11 cyber charter schools -- and a 12th has applied for a state charter -- with more than 10,000 students enrolled statewide, an increase of 50 percent over the last school year. Unlike bricks-and-mortar charter and conventional...

A CHARTER SCHOOL TALE by Travis Snyder Introduction: The Joneses are a fictional poor inner city African American family with two 17 year old daughters (Mary and Sarah) and a 10 year old named Johnny. Mary and Sarah are in the 12th grade and have been attending Broden School (a Charter school) since the 8th grade when they were pulled out of Archers Academy (another Charter school). Before the 6th grade they were forced by the government to attend Hillslane public school.  When Mary and Sarah were in the 5th grade their State Legislature (and/or Congress) passed the Charter School...

SACRAMENTO - As the California Charter Academy grew into the state's largest charter school, it developed close ties to various local and state politicians who accepted campaign contributions and pushed the academy's political interests, according to a state audit released Thursday. Between 1999 and its collapse last summer, the Victorville-based school placed members of a tightly woven band of Republican politicians in California's High Desert on boards and gave them jobs and money. In many cases, they responded. In 2003, Assemblywoman Sharon Runner, R-Lancaster, carried a resolution for the California Charter Academy that urged state lawmakers to support adult education...

SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- Operators of California's biggest charter school system pocketed much of the $139 million the state gave them, spending a fortune on fat salaries for family members, side businesses and overpriced textbooks, according to a state audit issued Thursday. The audit paints a damning picture of the California Charter Academy -- four charter schools that enrolled thousands of students from 1999 until August, when it closed amid the yearlong investigation. "The magnitude of waste of precious education funds outlined in this audit is appalling," said state Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell, who ordered the investigation. State officials...

I am a high school student in Upper township, NJ where the French Immersion program drama is going on. In my oppinion it is rediculous that 47 individuals can propose for a French Immersion Charter School. It is very selfish. If they want a school, THEY SHOULD PAY FOR IT. Upper Township is a great school district. There is no reason those children could not go to the schools provided for them. If you want your child to learn in french, go to canada!

After eight years of watching charter schools founder under financial problems, academic failure and mismanagement, South Florida school board members are pondering whether the alternative form of public education has become the Frankenstein's monster of school choice. Palm Beach County tightened its contract with charter schools, while the district quietly considers limiting the annual number of schools allowed to open. The Broward County School Board also may make it harder for new charter schools to open, even as 16 new schools got the green light to operate this fall. And school districts across the state snapped to attention after receiving...

SACRAMENTO – State education officials said Tuesday they will investigate the business practices of a Pasadena-based charter school that serves 20,000 students at dozens of centers throughout California. Options for Youth is the state's largest independent study charter school organization. The 10 schools focus on at-risk students who are on the verge of dropping out of school, such as pregnant teens, low academic achievers or gang members kicked out of other schools. A state panel that oversees independent study programs has already cut its funds by 30 percent for failing to spend enough on credentialed teachers and in November requested...

OAKLAND, Calif. -- A large group of Oakland public school teachers and students is attending a school board meeting at Oakland High School tonight to protest plans to turn 13 schools into charter schools. At a news conference before the school board meeting began, Ben Visnick, the president of the Oakland Education Association, the union that represents school teachers, said teachers oppose the proposed move to charter schools because recent studies show such schools don't increase student achievement. State Administrator Randolph Ward, who has overseen the Oakland Unified School District for 18 months, says he wants to restructure the district...

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. -- A school principal who says he was beaten by at least four city police officers while having a diabetic attack is suing the officers, accusing them of dragging him through his car window and calling him a drug user before getting him medical help. ADVERTISEMENT Douglas Greer, principal of the Robert M. Hughes Academy Charter School in Springfield, is seeking an unspecified amount of money in the lawsuit he filed Friday in U.S. District Court in Springfield. The lawsuit says Greer pulled his BMW into a convenience store parking lot on Nov. 4 when he started feeling...

TEXAS CITY, Texas -- Some parents were up in arms Friday after 10 students were strip-searched for a missing $10 bill at an award-winning charter school in Texas. The incident happened Thursday at Mainland Preparatory Academy near Texas City, The Galveston County Daily News reported. Principal Wilma Green said seven girls and three boys -- ages 11 and 12 -- had been in study hall when they were told to strip to their underwear. She said the boys were sent off with a male teacher and the girls with a female teacher for the searches. Green said the disrobing was...

<p>Widely reported this week was a study on charter schools by the Department of Education. Using national aggregate data, it concluded that charter students lag public school students in reading and math.</p> <p>But in another study, Harvard's Caroline Hoxby concludes otherwise. Hoxby finds that charter students soundly outpace their public school peers and that, as charter schools mature, their students' lead grows even stronger.</p>

Is it wrong for a private company to earn a profit when it does business with a public school? Gov. Jennifer Granholm, the Michigan Education Association, Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Watkins and many critics of charter schools seem to think so. Their concern, however, is more than a little misplaced. A 2003 survey by the Mackinac Center found that more than one-third of Michigan’s public school districts contract with private firms for at least one nonteaching service. Percentages are calculated for the 517 school districts that responded to the survey (there are 555 public school districts in Michigan). Charter...

Charter school advocates, emboldened by a major Beacon Hill victory last summer, want the Legislature to clear the way for more students to attend the quasi-independent public schools in Boston and dozens of other Massachusetts cities where waiting lists are large and growing. Leaders of Boston's charter schools have met twice in the past month to weigh strategies for raising a state cap that limits the number of students who can attend charters in each school district. Boston reached the limit over a year ago, so existing charter schools cannot expand and no new ones can be created in the...

Many legislators seem short on ideas now that voters have put responsibility for education reform squarely back in their laps with last week’s decisive defeat of Initiative 884 (the billion-dollar education tax increase). Post-election commentary about the measure is fixated on money and legislators are throwing up their hands wondering where they’re going to get more of it. There’s nothing new in the rhetoric—and that’s the problem. It’s time to consider the fact that we may already be spending enough money on education, we just aren’t spending it effectively. And it’s time to discuss the crucial need for structural reforms...

...Voters will consider 163 initiatives and referendums in 34 states.... Gay Marriage: This is the social issue du jour, and measures to ban it will appear on ballots in 11 states, including the battlegrounds of Michigan and Ohio. Proponents have their work cut out; ballot measures defending traditional marriage have never lost and tend to be approved by wide margins.... [W]hat's important is that the decision is left to the electorate and their representatives, not dictated from the bench by activist judges.... Tort Reform: The medical liability reform initiatives on the ballot in no fewer that four states -- Wyoming,...

It had been a month since one of the nation's largest charter school operators collapsed, leaving 6,000 students with no school to attend this fall. The businessman who used $100 million in state financing to build an empire of 60 mostly storefront schools had simply abandoned his headquarters as bankruptcy loomed, refusing to take phone calls. That left Mr. Larson, a school superintendent whose district licensed dozens of the schools, to clean up the mess.