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Njspotlight.com ‘A Christie Doctrine for Charter Schools?’ The governor has big plans for NJ charters, but his biggest stumbling block may be a lack of cash...
Wall Street Journal, ‘More Charters On Tap in N.J.
Christie Aims to Ease Way for Schools'..."New Jersey will greatly increase its number of public charter schools, adding 23 this year...The charters announced Tuesday included schools promising rigorous Hebrew language immersion, online learning, autism specialties and music education. Mr. Christie's proposed relaxation of charter-school rules would need legislative approval."
Njspotlight.com ‘A Christie Doctrine for Charter Schools?’
The governor has big plans for NJ charters, but his biggest stumbling block may be a lack of cash
By John Mooney, January 19 in Education
It was news enough that Gov. Chris Christie yesterday announced 23 new charter schools in New Jersey, the largest class yet of the semi-autonomous schools. Nine were approved for Newark alone, nearly doubling the total in that city.
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But the breadth of his plans may be more profound in the legislation his office is preparing, essentially rewriting the state’s 15-year-old charter school law.
In a copy provided by the administration, the bill would open up the potential of dozens of entities that could approve (or authorize) charter schools -- including local school boards. It would clear the way for both private and public schools to convert to charters, while eliminating any number of existing restrictions on who can operate charter schools and for which students.
For example, among the charters announced yesterday was a school serving children with autism, and another that would have single-sex classrooms -- in a co-educational building.
But the scope of his plans do not stop there. Under Christie's proposal the state education commissioner could unilaterally decide to convert an underperforming school into a charter. Parents could do so as well. Currently, teachers also need to approve the transformation.
Meanwhile, Christie stressed that there would be new accountability for charter schools as well, holding them to "performance contracts" that would stipulate specific achievement goals.
"We won’t accept failure from anyone, whether a district school or a charter school," he said.
Celebrating Charter Schools
Yet this was clearly a day for the governor to celebrate charter schools, holding the press conference at the Robert Treat Charter School in Newark, one of the state’s higher achieving and the first school he visited after his election.
He played up new statistics showing that a strong majority of charter schools in New Jersey last year outperformed the averages of their host districts. Those comparisons sometimes can be tricky given variations in the students served, but that did not hold the governor back in pressing that more opportunities be afforded all children.
"I want every child, regardless of zip code, to have the education their parents want them to have, and that is not the case today, particularly in urban communities," Christie said.
"All we’re doing is empowering a community movement that has previously been suppressed," he said.
While they may be new to New Jersey, many of the governor's proposed steps have been taken in other states, including the wide use of other agencies like colleges and universities to review and authorize charter schools.
"The addition of new potential authorizers brings New Jersey in line with a number of other states. While it is a significant departure from the history of charters in New Jersey, it is not unusual in the national context," said Katrina Bulkley, associate professor in education leadership at Montclair State University.
The Cash Nexus
Still, she added, Christie's changes also come with additional costs, something the state has not yet said how it will fund. "Charter authorizing, done well, is a time-consuming and costly exercise, and many potential authorizers will be wary of going down this path without some ability to recoup their costs,” Bulkley said.
There were other funding issues unresolved as well. A critical issue facing charters is facilities; they are prohibited from using public money to pay for space. The new proposal would only give them rights of first refusal if the public school district was to lease or sell space.
"What we hope we will do is by making more public facilities available, that will help," Christie said.
Still, when asked if districts would be compelled to give up unused space to charters, Christie said he was not at that point: "We’ll see how it goes. I am a compel kind of guy, but we’ll see how it goes."
In addition, Christie said he could not provide additional funding to charter schools to make up what they claim are severe shortfalls from what traditional districts receive. That disparity was the subject of a Jersey City Council resolution earlier this month calling for more equitable funding for that city’s charter schools.
"We have no money, and these folks in the charter movement know that," Christie said. "So we are going to have to work in a period of diminished resources and be creative in how we can help them financially."
One outspoken charter advocate in Jersey City commended the governor for his aggressive move on behalf of the charter movement, but said she remained disappointed that the funding issues remain unresolved.
"I’m really happy by the big vote of confidence for a sector that is clearly doing pretty good work," said Shelley Skinner, a board member of the state’s charter school association and development director of the Learning Community Charter School in Jersey City.
"It’s all great, but we cannot do this for free, especially with at-risk kids," she said.
Wall Street Journal, ‘More Charters On Tap in N.J.
Christie Aims to Ease Way for Schools
By LISA FLEISHER
New Jersey will greatly increase its number of public charter schools, adding 23 this year, the Christie administration said Tuesday.
The additions, including nine in Newark, would bring the number of charter schools in New Jersey to 97 by September.
At the same time, Gov. Chris Christie proposed a slew of changes to make it easier for charter schools to open and operate. The proposals would let districts convert failing schools into charters, make it easier for private schools to become public charters, and relax regulations and mandates, such as eliminating tenure at charter schools.
"I want every child...to have the chance to have the education that they and their parents want them to have, and that is not the case now, particularly...in our urban communities," Mr. Christie said at Robert Treat Academy, a Newark charter school he has championed.
The Republican governor, who is entering his second year in office, has made a push for more charter schools a pillar of his attempt to break down the walls of the traditional public education system. There's debate about how effective the schools are, but the state released data Tuesday showing the current New Jersey charters more often than not outperform their peers.
For example, Robert Treat, founded in 1997 by Democratic power broker Stephen Adubato, in 2010 posted standardized state test scores that were roughly 34 to 66 points above its district's average scores.
Critics, though, say the data are not as rosy as they seem. Bruce Baker, an associate professor at Rutgers who researches education finance, said charter schools are not necessarily representative of the population at large.
His research argues that there is statistically a small or no performance gain when factors such as poverty, homelessness and race are factored in.
The state has been criticized for not having enough administrative staff at the Department of Education to help control, sustain and evaluate charters. Questions about quality control were raised Tuesday by the state's largest teachers union, the New Jersey Education Association, which said it supports "high quality charter schools."
"But we have real concerns about rushing to approve large numbers of applications because of the real potential for quality control issues," spokesman Steve Baker said. "This is clearly an important political move for the governor, but we need to be focused on education policy, not political statements."
Mr. Christie said he wasn't trying to turn the state into a land of charters, but rather aims to use charters as a place for experimentation and innovation.
He vowed to shut failing charter schools, and pushed back against what he predicted would be "reflexive partisanship" to a push for charters, which he described as a grass-roots, statewide movement.
The Christie administration said the round of 23 schools was the biggest since New Jersey's first charter schools were granted their charters in 1997. The administration would not release any details about applicants that were denied.
The charters announced Tuesday included schools promising rigorous Hebrew language immersion, online learning, autism specialties and music education. Mr. Christie's proposed relaxation of charter-school rules would need legislative approval.
