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Charter School Report Disputed In a statement released last week, the North Carolina Public Charter Schools Association describes the NCSBA report as an “attempt to deceive policy makers and the public” that “raises serious questions about the objectivity and integrity of the NCSBA, and calls into question the wisdom of allowing that organization to continue to receive public funds.” At issue for the charter school group are the claims the NCSBA report makes about the charter school law and charter schools in North Carolina, including that the state has a “separate system for publicly funded charter schools,” and that these schools are “governed by private, non-elected, unaccountable boards,” (emphasis added), and “are exempt from the legal and ethical laws developed for public school governing boards over the past 55-plus years.” The NCSBA report includes a number of questions for elected officials and citizens, including asking whether “these taxpayer funded schools [should] operate within the same ethical standards as other public schools.” In response, the N.C. Public Charter Schools Association has issued a rebuttal to the NCSBA report, entitled, “Just the Facts.” The rebuttal begins by addressing the NCSBA’s claim that “the existence of charter schools in our state constitutes a ‘separate system of public education.’’” It notes that, “there is only one system of public education in the state, and that within that system there are multiple types of schools, one of those types being public charters. All charter schools are public schools, operating on a charter issued by the State Board of Education and reporting to (and overseen by) that board, in accordance with laws passed by the General Assembly and policies set by the State Board of Education (SBE).” The charter school association also responds to the NCSBA’s contention that charter school boards are “unaccountable,” noting that “members of charter school boards are constantly held accountable for their performance by parents, who may choose at any time to withdraw their children (and the funding which follows the child) from the school.” Additionally, “the resumes of all board members of prospective charter schools are reviewed by the North Carolina Public Charter Schools Advisory Council and the SBE prior to the approval of each school’s charter, and members who subsequently join the board of a charter school must be vetted and approved by that charter school’s board in accordance with the by-laws approved by the SBE for that school. There is no counterpart to this vetting process for local boards of education...” In response to the NCSBA’s claim that charter schools are not bound to “legal and ethical laws” developed for traditional public schools, the charter school association explains that charter schools “operate within the legal framework” of the State’s charter school law. “While that law exempts charter schools from ‘statutes and rules applicable to a local board of education,’ it also establishes many statutes that are applicable specifically to public charter schools,” the rebuttal explains. “In addition, the SBE sets numerous rules and policies for charter schools that are not applicable to local school boards. Finally, there is nothing in the charter school law which states or implies an ethical standard for charter school operation that is in any way lower or less rigorous than that set for local boards of education.” Additionally, the rebuttal points out that “one of the main ideas behind public charter schools was to free parents, community leaders, and professional educators from the ‘one-size-fits-all’ mold of the traditional public education bureaucracy and to allow experimentation and innovation to flourish. They are supposed to be regulated differently in some ways.” The rebuttal to the NCSBA report notes that “public charter schools in North Carolina are subject to a ‘death penalty’ that does not apply to any local district school.” Specifically, it explains that under North Carolina’s charter school law, the State Board of Education has the power “to revoke the charter of any public charter school for a host of reasons, from poor academic performance to non-compliance with financial and other regulatory requirements. The SBE defines poor academic performance as having fewer than 60 percent of all students scoring at grade level on state mandated end of course tests and failing to meet expected annual growth targets in two out of any three academic years. This is a standard that many district schools frequently fail to meet, without penalty.” In 2011, the North Carolina General Assembly approved legislation that removed the arbitrary cap on the number of charter schools allowed to operate in the State. “The 2011 General Assembly saw that our state’s families wanted more options and wisely, and with all but a handful of votes, ended the suffocating 15 year, 100 school cap on charters,” said Eddie Goodall, executive director of the North Carolina Public Charter Schools Association, in a statement. “These free open schools of choice sprinkled across only half of the state’s counties represent a less than apocalyptic shadow on the state’s 2,482 school public system.” Related resources: Copyright © 2012. North Carolina Family Policy Council. All rights reserved.
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