From Gerard Robinson and The AEI Blog
We need to understand the importance of authorizers in our current debate about charter schools. Movies such as “Waiting for Superman,” “The Cartel,” or “Won’t Back Down” have popularized the political themes of the charter-school movement: the challenges of teacher tenure, parental choice, per-pupil spending, and students left behind in the traditional schools. Most questions I field about charter schools fall under one or more of those categories. Historically, I have relied on university and think tank academic studies, state statutes and court decisions, or first-hand knowledge about the market to answer those questions. I added charter-school authorizers to my list of sources because they are an overlooked voice in our national conversation.
According to the National Association of Charter School Authorizers (NACSA), we have 1,015 authorizers in 43 states and the District of Columbia. It is worth noting that 90% of all charter authorizers are school districts. The remaining authorizers are city governments, higher education institutions, nonprofit organizations, and state departments of education. Authorizers have authority to approve and close a school, direct the timetable for delivery of funds to it, and shape student and teacher accountability measures, among other things. Although authorizers have a lot of power, we do not know as much as we should about their work in the charter-school space. I recommend reading reports published by NACSA, The Center for Education Reform, and state charter school associations to answer questions about charter schools.
In North Carolina the only entity that can authorize charter schools is the State Board of Education. The single biggest hindrance to a charter school revolution in North Carolina is that is not in the best interest of the State Board of Education. That’s a law that must be changed. Higher education institutions, non-profits and city governments should have the authority to authorize charters. The strong record of success in other states makes a compelling argument why North Carolina should have multiple authorizers.
Sadly it won’t happen this year. But when it does, both charters, public schools and all students will wonder why it took so long.
It took so long, of course, because Democrats hate children and want them to go on being brainwashed in their failing government far-left indoctrination centers (euphemistically termed “schools”) to the bitter end.
Parents do have a choice when someone else is designing the choice. Charter schools are not accountable for their mishaps and misappropriation of funds. When this happens the students, families and state loses. Charters in NC need to be examined first to see what they are doing and ideally the state department of education should implement those best practices to the traditional public schools so that every child will benefit from the charter school experiment. Charters are trying so hard to compete instead of doing what they were designed to do, and that is share the innovation if there truly is any. We do not need another authorizer in NC. We do not need our tax dollars dictated by anymore private hands as well. Waiting for Superman which was a big screen propaganda which used African-Americans such as Jeffrey Canada and former superintendent Joel Klein of NYC who have long abandoned the promotion of charter schools. (check out “The Inconvenient Truth Behind Waiting for Superman) If government would fund education and let educators design what our children need we would see a major improvement. If government would stop looking for a silver bullet for educating our children and understand that quality public education is achievable we would see major change in our public school districts in NC. NC continues follow all the mistakes of NY and therefore, is not getting the results they want for their public schools. Every student is unique and it is always the gullible and misinformed that are trying to promote more of what does not work for the majority of students which are African-American and Latino students in NC.
Correction: Parents do NOT have a choice when someone else is designing it.