National Center for Charter School Accountability
The National Center for Charter School Accountability provides research and recommendations on increasing transparency and accountability for charter schools.
Part II: Disillusionment is the second installment of a three-part series report on the charter school sector as it enters its fourth decade. It compiles some of the most striking examples of mismanagement and self-dealing, along with abrupt closures, inflated leases, related-party transactions, and authorizers collecting substantial fees while providing inadequate oversight. It not only highlights the systemic issues caused by charter laws shaped by the charter lobby but also suggests practical reforms that legislators should implement to restore accountability and protect families and public funds.
Avoiding the Supreme Court’s Religious Charter-School Trap: Governance Change for the New Legal Era, a policy brief from the National Education Policy Center, discusses the legal and governance challenges that would occur if the Supreme Court allows religious charter schools. It argues that major governance changes would need to occur in the states in order to preserve the public and civil rights character of charter education.
The authors, which include NPE Executive Director, Carol Burris, make the case that a “shift from independent charters to district-governed charters would bring meaningful governance and educational benefits. District-governed charters, subject to districtwide financial controls, procurement rules and professional auditing, would substantially reduce financial risk without sacrificing educational quality.”
Education Week: “So what changed? Politics, according to Burris. “It depends on the legislature. Charter schools have become a cause of the Republican Party,” she said. When Montana had a governor who was a Democrat, the state “rejected charter schools,”
South Carolina Daily Gazette: A bill creating more oversight for charter schools, the management companies they hire and the authorizers that hold their contracts sailed through the Senate on Tuesday.
A new brief offers a clear legislative path to ensure charter schools cannot engage in discrimination. Avoiding the Supreme Court’s Religious Charter-School Trap: Governance Change for the New Legal Era,authored by Kevin G. Welner, Carol Burris, and Preston C. Green III offers states a concrete legislative roadmap to reform charter laws.
