Charter Schools Oversight Q & A
June 17th, 2008 | by BGuzzardi |
Question #1: What processes should the School Reform Commission be working with to approve or deny new charter schools and renewals?
Answer #1: Most state have alternative authorizers in addition to, or in place of, local school districts. School districts and charter schools are competitors, an inherent conflict. Asking the district to oversee the charters is like asking McDonaldʼs to oversee Wendyʼs.
Question #2: What should the school district do to provide better financial oversight over charter schools?
Answer #2: The SRC had all the information they needed for oversight of Charters: audits, reports, financial records. SRC is reluctant to shut down charter schools when conventional government schools are far worse.
Question #3: What type of input should parents have in whether charter schools are allowed to expand or should be shut down?
Answer #3: Charters are subject to oversight of parents whose choose these schools and who have daily experience with the schools. Parents, not bureaucrats, have more information and more incentives to make decisions whose consequences their kids have to live with.
2 Responses to “Charter Schools Oversight Q & A”
By Sophia Simmons on Oct 16, 2008 | Reply
Visit http://www.kheperacharterschool.com for a case study on how legislation with good intentions can be undermined. After the founders expended three years of painstaking work, the board found pretexts to eliminate them a mere two months after the school opened.
By Bob Guzzardi on Oct 16, 2008 | Reply
I cannot know the accuracy of this information. I invite additional input. There is a lawsuit filed and it appears that there is some validity to the contentions but I have no clue as to any culpability or wrongdoing. It is upsetting to see Charter Schools in disarray. On the other hand, this is free market policing itself. No government school is exposed to this kind of openness and accountability and no government school has ever closed because of educational failures or financial profligacy.