Superintendents of ASD and BASD have recently shared their perspective of the harm current PA Charter School law does for public schools.
cite Morning Call, June 1, 2019 written by Thomas Parker and Joseph Roy, “Your View by Allentown, Bethlehem superintendents: Why tighter controls are needed for charter schools”
My thoughts on Charter School Policy
In order to get a clear understanding of the superintendent’s perspective, we need to understand the current Charter School Policy with regard to Tax Payer Funding and Oversight of a number of school finctions (curriculum, testing, administrative leadership, marketing and recruitment, building use, etc.)
If you haven’t yet read the actual Act 22 – amendment to the Pennsylvania Public School Code of 1949… have at it here. Or, read this 2015 WHYY summary of how Pennsylvania Charter Schools are funded. Add another perspective: PA’s fair funding issue with this one page summary. OK, so if that’s too many references for you, Pennsylvania is ranked 46th in the country with the amount of public school funding supported by state taxes.
What the the basic impact of having state funds diverted to Charter Schools? It means even less state taxes for existing public schools. Let’s not forget where Pennsylvania stands in how many state taxes are allocated to the 502 public school districts across the commonwealth.
Now let’s revisit the proposed House Bills mentioned in the June 1st Morning Call article:
HB 355 – Ethics Requirements for Charter Trustees and Administrators
The legislation will improve several provisions of the Charter School Law related to making critical ethics, transparency, governance and auditing reforms, including:
- Requirements related to advertising,
- Imposing ethical obligations on charter school entities’ board of trustees and administrators,
- Setting membership and quorum requirements for charter school entities’ board of trustees,
- Requiring annual independent financial audits for charter school entities, and
- Setting limits on charter school entities’ allowable unassigned fund balances.
I support this bill.
HB 356 – Facilities Regulations
The legislation will improve several provisions of the Charter School Law related to facilities, including:
- Granting charter school entities a right of first refusal for the purchase or lease of unused school district buildings,
- Requiring school districts, intermediate units, member institutions of the State System of Higher Education and community colleges to make their facilities available to cyber charter school students for purposes of standardized testing, in accordance with the same policy that would apply to other organizations and community groups, and
- Requiring charter school entities to cover or remove religious objects and symbols if using a sectarian facility.
I have questions on this one. Why do Charter Schools need access to buildings for standardized testing? Is this bill just for Cyber Charter schools? Is this an attempt to better utilize tax payer money so that Charter Schools won’t be making questionable rental agreements with property developers? But wait – how are Charter Schools funded again? Oh right.
HB 357 – Application and Charter Process
This legislation will improve the chartering process through establishment of the following:
- A standard application form to be developed by PDE (Pennsylvania Department of Education) for statewide use,
- A charter amendment process,
- Improving the student enrollment process and record transfer process, and
- Allowing families with multiple children attending one cyber charter school to opt out of receiving multiple computers, printers and monitors.
More questions. Does this bill suggest that Charter schools may expand their enrollment without district awareness or approval? If so – I do not support this bill.
HB 358 – Dual Enrollment for Charter (High School Students only) Schools
A dual enrollment program allows current high school students to enroll in concurrent college classes through an institution of higher education. Current laws only allow traditional public schools to enter into concurrent enrollment agreements and offer such programs. [This] legislation would allow charter school entities to offer similar programs to the students they serve.
I would support this bill, if no tax payer dollars were allocated to the cost of the tuition, fees, or transportation to any higher education program offered to Charter Schools.