All Articles Tagged "charter schools"
Court Declines to Reconsider Charter School Decision
(AJC) — The Georgia Supreme Court on Monday said it has declined to reconsider its recently issued 4-3 decision that declared the charter school law unconstitutional. On May 16, the court found the 2008 law creating the Georgia Charter Schools Commission unconstitutional because it granted the state the authority to approve charter schools over the objection of local school boards.
Detroit Scraps Massive Charter School Conversion
(Detroit Free Press) — The ambitious plan to convert one-third of Detroit Public Schools buildings to charter schools by fall has slowed significantly, scaling back to only five charter school conversions this year. Roy Roberts, the emergency manager for DPS, said Thursday that the DPS Renaissance 2012 plan announced in March was “too aggressive.” However, dozens of schools still will be considered for conversion to charters next year or beyond. Of the 19 local and national companies that submitted bids to charter as many as 50 DPS buildings, three small local companies have been chosen to run five low-performing elementary schools. The selected companies have produced high test scores among low-income charter school students, data show.
2 Charters Get School Board OK
(AJC) — Georgia Cyber Academy parent Renee Lord said she is breathing easier now that her charter school of choice has been approved by the state for another five years. The Georgia Board of Education on Thursday unanimously approved a charter extension for Odyssey School/Georgia Cyber Academy as the first of 16 campuses whose operations were overturned by a recent state Supreme Court decision. It was all part of a back-up plan school and state leaders devised to help the partnering campuses provide uninterrupted service. “This is a good immediate fix,” said Lord, who has two children at GCA.
NAACP Defends Position on Charter Schools
(Amsterdam News) — Hazel Dukes and the NAACP are setting the record straight about their position on charter schools. Dukes says that placing charter schools in existing public schools is a form of segregation, and stands by a lawsuit that the venerable, more-than-100-year-old civil rights organization is filing with the United Federation of Teachers (UFT) against the Department of Education. At a press conference last Friday in front of the Harlem Success Academy’s offices on 125th Street and Lenox Avenue, Dukes was joined by parents, elected officials, union members and dozens of NAACP members from across the city. Assemblyman Keith Wright, State Sen. Bill Perkins and City Council Members Robert Jackson and Inez Dickens were among some of the elected officials at the press conference, along with UFT President Michael Mulgrew.
NAACP vs. Charter Schools
(New York Times) — The N.A.A.C.P. on Friday defended its involvement in a lawsuit to block 20 charter schools from opening in public school buildings this fall, saying it was trying to halt city plans to create what it considered a two-tiered education system. About 50 people, including many Harlem political leaders, staged a rally on Lenox Avenue outside the offices of the Success Charter Network, one of the city’s largest charter school networks. The rally was meant to counter a rally in front of the State Office Building in Harlem last week. That gathering drew about 2,500 parents and students, who came from charter schools around the city to demand that the N.A.A.C.P. withdraw its support from the lawsuit. The suit, filed by the city’s teachers’ union, would prevent 20 charter schools from opening and expanding in September inside of traditional public school buildings. The process, known as co-location, allows charter schools to move into public school buildings and share their facilities.
NAACP Stands Firm on Charter Schools
(Amsterdam News ) — NAACP New York State Conference President Hazel Dukes said that charter school supporters are looking for a fight and that the NAACP will not back down in its fight against inequalities in the public schools system when it comes to the placement of charter schools.
The Meeting: On Wednesday morning, several charter school parents and their supporters went to NAACP headquarters in Manhattan to meet with Dukes and demand that the NAACP withdraw from a lawsuit that threatens to prevent the closure and co-location of 18 charter schools in public school buildings. The civil rights organization has joined with the United Federation of Teachers and several other groups in the suit. The meeting with Dukes at her office came as a result of a rally that took place last Thursday. Thousands of charter school supporters gathered at the Adam Clayton Powell State Office Building that day to protest the NAACP’s involvement in the lawsuit filed by the teacher’s union.
Lawmakers Aid Charter Students
(AJC) — Khalil McIver used to sit quietly at his old school, too respectful to tell his teachers that he was bored. Now, the Atlanta Heights Charter School fifth grader is tackling ninth-grade reading and math and he doesn’t want politics to impede his progress. ”Don’t shut our school down, it’s terrifying for the students,” said McIver, worried that the last day of classes could mean the end of operations for Atlanta Heights, one of 16 campuses approved by the now defunct Georgia Charter Schools Commission. Friday, a legislative subcommittee will convene to begin brainstorming ideas to help students like McIver continue their education after the Georgia Supreme Court overturned the state board that authorized their public schools. The May ruling affects potentially 15,000 students, including the 400 at Atlanta Heights, a $6 million new campus with Promethean interactive whiteboards in classrooms and an iPad lab.
Hundreds Protest Overturning of Charter School Law
(AJC) — More than 400 school-choice supporters rallied outside the Georgia Capitol Tuesday to save charter campuses authorized by the Georgia Charter Schools Commission from being shuttered by a court ruling. Tony Roberts, CEO of the Georgia Charter Schools Association, called on parents, teachers and students of public charter schools to ask the Legislature to make things right. On Monday, the state Supreme Court ruled that the law creating the commission as an alternative authorizer of public charter schools was unconstitutional.
Charter Founder Is Named Education Commissioner
(New York Times) — John B. King Jr., who credits teachers for helping him surmount an isolated childhood as an orphan in Brooklyn and who ran celebratedcharter schools in New York and Massachusetts, was named Monday as the state’s next education commissioner, with a unanimous vote of the Board of Regents. At 36, Dr. King, who previously served as deputy commissioner, will be among the nation’s youngest educational leaders, though he had been the clear front-runner since the current commissioner, David M. Steiner, announced in April that he would resign. After losing both of his parents to illness by age 12, Dr. King earned an undergraduate degree from Harvard, a law degree from Yale and a doctorate in education from Columbia. In between, he co-founded Roxbury Prep, a top charter middle school in Massachusetts; led Uncommon Schools, a network of charters based in New York; and married and had two daughters.
His drive, he said in an interview on Sunday, comes from a sense of urgency to create for other children the refuge he found as a fourth grader at Public School 276 in Canarsie, the year his mother died of heart failure. His teacher that year, Mr. Osterweil, was dynamic and creative, encouraging him to read Shakespeare and memorize the leaders and capital of every country in the world. Later, Celestine DeSaussure, a social studies teacher whom the children called Miss D, made him the sportscaster in a fake Aztec newscast.
Georgia Supreme Court Overturns Charter-Schools Law
(AP) — A Georgia law that cleared the way for a wave of new state-approved charter schools was struck down Monday by the state’s divided top court in a landmark decision that has left thousands of students and parents under a cloud of uncertainty. The Georgia Supreme Court’s 4-3 decision overturned the law creating the Georgia Charter Schools Commission, which allowed the state to approve and fund charter schools over the objection of local school boards. The decision promises to reshape how public schools are funded by concluding that only local boards of education have the power to open and pay for public schools. ”We do not in any manner denigrate the goals and aspirations that these efforts reflect. The goals are laudable,” wrote Chief Justice Carol Hunstein. “The method used to attain those goals, however, is clearly and palpably unconstitutional.” The decision does not affect the 65,000 students attending charter schools approved by their local school district, but left unclear is the fate of 16 charter schools approved by the commission. About 5,000 students are now enrolled in the schools, which are scattered across the state, and they are designed to eventually serve about 15,000 students.
