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The Record ‘Time may be right for charter schools’
Philadelphia Inquirer ‘Philly.com ‘Pa., N.J. miss out on federal charter school start-up money’
Star Ledger/Gloucester County Times ‘New Jersey districts look to local foundations for school funds’
Associated Press/nj.com ‘Bus advertisements may be on the way for cash-strapped N.J. schools’
The Record ‘Time may be right for charter schools’
Philadelphia Inquirer ‘Philly.com ‘Pa., N.J. miss out on federal charter school start-up money’
Star Ledger/Gloucester County Times ‘New Jersey districts look to local foundations for school funds’
Associated Press/nj.com ‘Bus advertisements may be on the way for cash-strapped N.J. schools’
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The Record ‘Time may be right for charter schools’ Monday, November 29, 2010 BY PATRICIA ALEX The Record STAFF WRITER A controversial plan to open a Hebrew-immersion charter school in Bergen County might have its best chance at state approval this year as the Christie Aadministration looks to expand school choice throughout the state. The application for Shalom Academy - thrice rejected by the state and opposed by local school administrators - is also buoyed by the opening this year of a similar school in East Brunswick, which already has a waiting list for the next school year. "If it's a quality application, it's got a better shot than ever now," said Derrell Bradford, executive director of E3, a statewide school-choice advocacy group. "In the past, charters were viewed as a nuisance and granted grudgingly," said Bradford, who is helping the state review charter applications. "Without a doubt, the governor and the current Department of Education is more open and receptive to charter schools than any administration we've had previously." In all, there are 50 applications in the latest bid for charters, a bumper crop for a movement that has been slow to grow since the state started granting charters in 1996. About 26,000 students attend 73 charters in the state, a small fraction of the 1.4 million public school students But the number is expected to grow substantially under Governor Christie, whose administration has made school choice a priority in its school reform efforts. Most charters are in cities with persistently failing schools, but there is a growing interest in the suburbs. The Shalom Academy proposes to serve students in Englewood and Teaneck, two towns that each already hosts a charter. The public school districts in both towns oppose Shalom, saying it would drain too many resources from the local school budget and not appeal to a broad range of public school students. "Are you really going to attract the diversity that is Teaneck when you have such a narrow focus?" said Barbara Pinsak, interim superintendent for the township. Charter schools are tax-supported and public, but are governed independently of local districts. The money follows the student to a charter with the schools getting 60 to 90 percent of what each public school gets per pupil. It is estimated that Teaneck would need to peel off $1.4 million from its annual budget, and Englewood slightly more for the operations of the new school, according to both districts. Critics say the charter is a "thinly veiled" attempt to provide a publicly funded alternative to Jewish day schools, where tuition can be $15,000 annually. Both Teaneck and Englewood are home to a sizeable number of Orthodox Jewish families, most of whom send their children to the private schools. In Englewood, The Moriah School, a private Jewish school, serves 1,000 students in Grades prekindergarten through eight. Indeed, some in the private school community have worried in the past that a public Hebrew-immersion charter might also take students away from the day schools. Hebrew-immersion charter schools opened in Brooklyn and Florida in recent years. The opening of the charter in Hollywood, Fla., sparked debate over whether Hebrew and Jewish culture could be taught without teaching religion. However, proponents say the schools are secular. In September, The Hatikvah International Academy opened in East Brunswick, and there is an application pending for a Hebrew language charter high school in Edison. Hatikvah now serves Grades K-2 and already has more applications that than it has seats for next year's K-3 enrollment, said Principal Naomi Drewitz. Ninety-eight students are enrolled. Hatikvah overcame opposition similar to that now leveled at Shalom. "We're always trying to dispel the misconception that we're a Jewish school," said Principal Naomi Drewitz. "But it's hard to convince people - we have a very, very diverse population." Indeed, a mixed group was found on a recent visit to the school, now operating in a Presbyterian Cchurch right next to a district elementary school. Floretta Caldwell said she chose Hatikvah because of the low student-teacher ratio - there are about 17 students and two teachers in each class - and because she wanted her first-grade daughter Dionna to learn a second language at a young age. The mix of students is an added bonus, said Caldwell, who is African-American and lives in East Brunswick, where she says the schools are predominantly white. "Her class is very diverse. I wouldn't have that in the regular public school." Another parent, Dori Daus, said the secular curriculum at Hatikvah would not, as critics had predicted, appeal to the Jewish day school crowd. "The draw is the quality of education and the small class size - you can't beat that," said Daus of Monroe. Drewitz said private fund-raising supplements public money to allow the school to maintain small class sizes. keep classes small. Hatikvah will be looking for more permanent space in the near future, she said. The Englewood plan proposes to start with 160 students in Grades K-5 and grow to 240 in K-8. Englewood Superintendent of Schools Richard Segall said the charter's mission might be "too specialized' to appeal to public school students in the district - just 15 families expressed interest when parents were polled as to whether they wanted a Hebrew-immersion program within the regular district, he said. The man behind the Shalom Academy, Raphael Bachrach, did not respond to repeated requests to discuss the new application. DOE State education officials said they are not concerned with the targeted focus of some of the charter applications - in addition to the language-immersion schools, there is a fashion-oriented academy proposed for Essex County and a tourism one being discussed in Atlantic County. "They all have to teach the state's core curriculum standards," said Valarie Smith, who oversees charters for the Education Department. "If they are adding a certain focus, it's additional." E-mail: alex@northjersey.com |
Philadelphia Inquirer ‘Philly.com ‘Pa., N.J. miss out on federal charter school start-up money’
By Rita Giordano and Dan Hardy, Inquirer Staff Writers
New Jersey's proposed charter schools, hailed by Gov. Christie as part of his school-choice agenda, are at record numbers. But the state has no new start-up money for them because it failed to win another federal education grant.
Pennsylvania, where Gov.-elect Tom Corbett has likewise expressed support for charters among school-choice options, also was one of five states turned down for the funds. Twelve states were successful.
New Jersey sought about $14 million, and Pennsylvania applied for $30 million, both to be used over three years.
The federal program is intended to help charter schools and applicants cover preliminary expenses such as program development, securing nonprofit status, and hiring accountants, lawyers, and consultants. It can give new schools the chance to get off to a good start with books, equipment, and supplies.
The states can reapply, probably in the spring, but money awarded next year might arrive too late for schools with September openings.
New Jersey, which has 73 charters, said in its application that it hoped to open 30 more within three years. Seven, including schools in Camden and Willingboro, already have been approved to open in September.
Pennsylvania has 145 charters and expects to add 20 to 25 in the next three years.
Since the U.S. Department of Education's charter school program was launched in 1995, each state has won four awards. The most recent were in 2006, when Pennsylvania was granted $12 million and New Jersey got $6.2 million, both dispensed over four years, said Scott Pearson, acting director of the program.
In New Jersey, the grants typically resulted in about $150,000 per new charter.
Pamela Brown, an art educator who wants to offer full-day kindergarten with an arts emphasis at her proposed Voorhees Charter School, said the money would be a godsend.
"Funding for a start-up is especially significant," said Brown, who now plans to look for other money. "The first five years, there's so much you need to purchase."
The states were notified in the summer that they had failed to qualify. As in the recent Race to the Top federal grant competition, in which New Jersey and Pennsylvania twice vied unsuccessfully for up to $400 million, the states' applications were found lacking.
New Jersey received 61.3 percent of the possible points; Pennsylvania got 60.1 percent, Pearson said. States that won grants scored between 67 percent and 85.7 percent, he said.
Five reviewers graded the states on criteria including strength of their charter management and monitoring plans, how the schools would contribute to student achievement, and flexibility of the states' charter laws. In their aggregate scores, Pennsylvania and New Jersey lost points in every category.
New Jersey intends to try again for the funds, state education spokesman Alan Guenther said. If it falls short once more, "we will have to see what we can do" to help the start-ups, he said.
The state does not now have alternative funding, he said, but education officials are working to create a mentor program to help proposed and existing charters.
Not qualifying for the money was disappointing, said Steven Weitzman, spokesman for the Pennsylvania Department of Education.
"I'm told it was a matter of other states improving and raising the competitive bar for the grants more than Pennsylvania somehow falling down," Weitzman said.
"As to filling the hole," he said, "I can only say the new governor and new session of the legislature will have to establish their priorities and determine the next steps."
New Jersey Assembly Speaker Sheila Y. Oliver (D., Essex) has vowed to look into the state's failure to secure funds. "It looks to me like the Christie administration totally, totally dropped the ball on this and submitted a very sketchy, thrown-together application," Oliver said.
The application was submitted during the tenure of education chief Bret Schundler. Rochelle Hendricks, then in charge of the state's school-choice operation, replaced Schundler as acting commissioner in August.
Charter school advocates said that not receiving the federal aid is significant.
Lawrence Jones Jr., president of the Pennsylvania Coalition of Charter Schools and founder of the Richard Allen Charter School in Philadelphia, said he was "extremely disappointed."
The grants give candidates "an opportunity to present an excellent charter application," Jones said. "A large number of schools, including ours, were able to start up because they had that funding."
For the newly approved, "loss of the money makes it very difficult to put together a high-quality operation," he said. He wondered if charters were high enough on the Rendell administration's priority list.
New Jersey recently announced a record 50 charters seeking state approval, encouraged by Christie's frequently voiced support of school choice. An additional 29 applications were submitted earlier in the year, Guenther said.
Nine of the 50 recent applicants, including a "virtual" school aimed at high school dropouts, would serve South Jersey. They will be notified in January if they are approved. Some of the prospective schools are in Camden, where the area's charters are most concentrated.
But the list of prospective schools also represents the desire for choice in well-regarded South Jersey districts.
In addition to the Voorhees Charter School, with its proposed focus on early-childhood education, the Regis Academy Charter Society would serve Cherry Hill, Voorhees, Somerdale, and Lawnside. Amir Khan, a businessman and pastor of the Solid Rock Worship Center, who submitted the application, said the school would use the "micro society" education model, which allows children to learn by creating their own community with jobs and responsibilities.
Not having the $150,000 distributions challenges new schools, said Carlos Perez, chief officer of the New Jersey Charter Schools Association. "This is how you buy your books, hire people," Perez aid.
The federal Department of Education allows individual charters to apply for start-up funds if their states don't receive them. Four in New Jersey and three in Pennsylvania got funds over the summer, after the states were turned down, Pearson said.
The $150,000 "would have made my life a lot easier," said Nicholle Anatol, who hopes her Willingboro Academy Charter School is approved in January. She said she would seek money elsewhere for things such as laptops and library books.
Michael White, an education consultant and former principal, said he would look for other grants and in-kind contributions if his Medical Science Leadership Development Charter School is approved. The middle school would be in Gloucester Township.
The federal money "would be a tremendous amount of help," White said.
Contact staff writer Rita Giordano at 856-779-3841 or rgiordano@phillynews.com
Star Ledger/Gloucester County Times ‘New Jersey districts look to local foundations for school funds’
Saturday, November 27, 2010
By Nic Corbett
For The Star-Ledger
Hundreds of public school supporters stretched atop a sea of yoga mats laid around the 30-yard-line on Montclair High School's football field.
The "yogathon" fundraiser in September didn't make much Š about $10,000 Š but it engendered good will, said Lois Whipple, executive director of the Montclair Fund for Educational Excellence. With other events, the fund generates half a million dollars annually for the township's public schools.
That money is needed now more than ever.
Across the state, school districts are turning to their local education foundations to do more than just pay for innovative initiatives. They are also looking to the foundations to financially support programs that otherwise would be on the chopping block.
In Montclair, when world language instructors were cut from the district's elementary schools, the fund helped buy Rosetta Stone computer software.
"We're going to have to get more and more savvy about fundraising, much in the way that colleges are, where you really mind your alumni, you use social media, perhaps you look for corporate support," said Whipple.
The private dollars are crucial for districts that have lost most or all of their state aid. If Gov. Chris Christie's tool kit for local governments to keep taxes in check doesn't work, conditions in schools will only worsen, said Paul Rissman, co-chair of an endowment campaign for the Summit Educational Foundation. If it does work, the schools will stay the same, he said.
"What we are sure will happen without a lot of private support is that our schools from now on will never improve," Rissman said, "and that really strikes a chord."
But some foundations, suffering from a "PTA mentality," are putting on bake sales when they need to start thinking like a university and build an endowment, a reliable source of funding, said Robert New, president of the Mid-Atlantic Consortium of Education Foundations.
The Summit foundation is already doing that by building an endowment with $3.5 million in pledges, said Nicole Blomfield, the foundation's president. She doesn't know of any similar endowments in the state.
Other foundations are just starting. Three parents formed the Netcong Education Foundation last year at the suggestion of the school board. Although they didn't have much fundraising experience, in three months they got $9,500 worth of donations and corporate grants to restore the K-8 school district's sole sports program, basketball, said founding member Thomas Patamia.
Marcia Smith Fleres, director of the West Windsor-Plainsboro Education Foundation, said her foundation is working on a request of the school board. It is working to restore the annual three-day outdoor education program for sixth-graders, a $50,000 expense cut from the budget.
Fleres, in her capacity as executive director of the New Jersey Education Foundation Partnership, organized a conference this month called "The Power of Education Foundations in Changing Times." About 40 foundations were represented, and many came with their local superintendent or school board member.
"The biggest constraint we have is the ability to raise money," Fleres said. "Traditionally, people didn't think of donating money to their local school districts. That was paid for in our taxes. So there's a change that has to take place."
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Associated Press/nj.com ‘Bus advertisements may be on the way for cash-strapped N.J. schools’
Published: Sunday, November 28, 2010, 12:53 PM Updated: Sunday, November 28, 2010, 1:00 PM
TRENTON -- New Jersey's cash-strapped public school districts may soon be able to raise money by soliciting school bus advertising.
The measure was recently sent to Gov. Chris Christie's desk after the state Legislature gave its final approval to the plan, which would allow ads on the outside of buses that districts own or lease.
It was not known when or if Christie would act on the legislation.
The districts would set their own ad rates, determine how many ads are sold and their size. But ads for tobacco or alcohol products or ones that push a political agenda would not be allowed.
The bill requires boards of education to use half the revenue the ads generate to defray fuel costs for student busing. The other half could go toward school programs or services the individual districts deem appropriate.
The Senate approved the bill last week, about two months after it passed in the Assembly. About half a dozen states, including Colorado, Arizona, Florida, Minnesota, Tennessee and Texas, allow bus advertising, and a handful more are considering it.
Proponents of the New Jersey bill say it practically amounts to free money.
But critics say school bus ads would amount to blatant commercialization.
The measure was backed by the New Jersey School Boards Association, which noted that it's optional for districts to participate and that local school boards will have the authority to approve ads.
Previous coverage:
N.J. Assembly committee approves displaying ads on school buses
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