There are several avenues for improving education. One is the charter school idea. This page gives links to organizations that provide information about charter schools.
Charter Schools in Kansas
- The North East Business Association (NEBA) is the community supporter of the first charter school in Kansas City, Kansas. Its executive director is Chiquita C. Coggs. KCUR-89.3 FM interviewed Coggs in Feburary 2007. You can listen to the interview here.
- The Kansas State Department of Education should be the first stop for anyone interested in charter schools. See the section “Technical Information from KSDE” (scroll down) for more.
- The KSDE provides a list of charter schools.
- Creating a charter school (KSDE) is a list of the issues that a would-be charter school operator must address.
- The Kansas Association of Public Charter Schools was given a grant by KSDE. Here’s the announcement. We haven’t seen a web site for this organization. If you have information, drop a note in the comment field.
- The KSDE staff did a report on the scope and issues involved in charter schools. There’s a brief (PDF) literature review, as well as a (PDF) PowerPoint-like summation on the topic.
Find a Charter School
The Center for Education Reform has a great service called Find a Charter School Today. It lets you zoom into specific geographic areas to see what charter schools are available. It starts with a map of the United States, and there’s a balloon over each state in proportion to the number of charter schools in the state.
The Center for Education Reform has a great service called Find a Charter School Today.
Charter Schools Elsewhere
There are a variety of charter schools. A good place to begin to understand the variety is a report published by the Colorado Department of Education, called A Typology of Colorado Charter Schools (PDF). As the name suggests, the report focuses on one state. But the types are found across the country.
Many are operated by a single board of education leaders, others have many different schools.
Here are a few of the larger-scale groups that operate multiple schools:
Imagine Schools operates in over a dozen states.
KIPP, or Knowledge if Power Program, operates perhaps more charter schools than anyone else.
National Heritage Academies is another multi-state organization.
Insight Schools offers online schools in many states–sometimes as charters, sometimes through a particular school district.
Alternate Authorizers
In some states, including Kansas, charter schools are overseen by local school districts. But some districts oppose charter schools, seeing them as a competitive threat. Others may not be equipped (or have the incentive) to offer sufficient supervision to a charter school. These are some of the reasons why in some states have created agencies or offices to supervise charter schools.
Arizona State Board for Charter Schools is one of several authorities in Arizona that oversees charter schools.
Charter School Institute of Colorado is one agency that reviews charter school applications and offers accreditation of charters.
The Florida Schools of Excellence Office offers a means of appeal to charter school applicants who have been denied by a local district.
The Georgia State Board of Education may oversee a “state chartered special school” if the “charter has been denied by a local board of education, mediation has not been successful, and the charter petition meets” various legal requirements.
The Idaho Public Charter Schools Commission is a specialized, authorizing agency.
In Indiana, Ball State University as well as the office of the mayor of Indianapolis serve as authorizers.
Louisiana Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE); one of several authorities with oversight.
Massachusetts has two types of charter schools, including some overseen by the state department of education.
In Michigan, several state universities serve as charter school authorizers.
The North Carolina Department of Public Instruction can authorize charters.
The Ohio Council of Community Schools is one organization that oversees charter schools in Ohio.
The South Carolina Charter School District is a new, specialized unit of government. It does not yet have a web site.
Utah State Charter School Board oversees some charter schools in the state, while districts oversee others.
(See the National Association of Charter School Authorizers for more information.)
General Information, Advocacy, and Technical Assistance
The Center for Education Reform conducts an annual survey of charter school laws in the states. It also lets you follow the money, to see how funding for charter schools is allocated.
US Charter Schools “provides a wide range of information and links to resources to guide charter schools in every phase of their development, from start-up, to expansion, to renewal.”
National Alliance for Public Charter Schools favors “lifting arbitrary “caps” on charter growth, closing the finance gap between charters and other public schools, and updating the federal Charter Schools Program to spur a new era of charter achievement.”
The National Charter School Clearing House is another source of information.
Education Week has a resource center of articles on charter schools. Non-subscribers can read the archives on a limited basis.
The Thomas B. Fordham Foundation is an education and research organization favoring charter schools.
The National Charter School Research Project collects information about charter schools.
Official Sources of Information on Charter Schools
The Education Commission of the States is an official organization of state governments. Its activities concerning charter schools involve “Helping States Use Chartering as a Strategy to Meet the Demands of the No Child Left Behind Act.”
The U.S. Department of Education provides assistance to states and to charter schools.
The Arizona State Board for Charter Schools is one of several authorities that can authorize charter schools in the state of Arizona.
The Teacher Unions on Charter Schools
The teachers union–the National Education Association–doesn’t come out and say that charter schools are bad. The national office leaves some discretion to state affiliates. However, it does insist that (a) school districts have a veto power over charter school applications; (b) profit-making companies be prohibited from operating a charter school, and (c) the labor restrictions governing district schools apply to charter schools as well. Call it “equal treatment,” we call it handicapping a good idea.
The American Federation of Teachers, another union, claims some of the credit for the creation of the charter school idea. On the other hand, other experts on education argue that unions stifle charter schools.
Charter School Associations and School Directories in Other States
A number of states have statewide associations of charter schools, including Arizona, California, Colorado, Indiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota , and Texas.
The National Association of Charter School Authorizers “welcomes and serves the needs of the full range of chartering authorities: local school boards and districts of all sizes, state boards and departments of education, universities and colleges, municipal bodies, independent chartering boards and qualified non-profit organizations.”
The Center for Education Reform has assembled a directory of public charter schools.
The $10 Million Federal Grant to Kansas
In June 2006, the Kansas State Department of Education was awarded a $10 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education under its Charter Schools Program. The grants, given to 10 states, are meant to encourage the start-up of charter schools, and promote their effectiveness. Federal funds available for new charters (Word) is the press release from KSDE announcing the receipt of the grants.
Part of the $10 million federal grant for charter school development is dedicated to creating an organization to provide technical and other support to Kansas charter schools. The Statewide charter school organzation RFP (Word) describes what the department is looking for when it comes to dispensing the money. A $40,000 grant will be given for the years 2007-2010. This modest amount will have to be supplemented by other sources. One potential problem: the would-be recipient must be an established Kansas non-profit corporation with that is “Familiar with and/or have experience working under the public charter school law in Kansas.” Given the paucity of charter schools in Kansas, how many organizations could meet the criteria of the RFP? A cover letter for the RFP (also a Word doc) says that the department is looking for a “self-sustaining statewide charter organization that can assist new public charter schools in the planning and implementation process, provide assistance to facilitate the quality and sustainability for established public charter schools.”
Would you like to start a charter school?
Starting a charter school is more difficult than it appears. There is, first of all, Kansas law (PDF) governing the establishment of a charter school. It’s pretty restrictive.
The KSDE web site offers information about what’s involved in starting a charter school, starting with the Petition to Establish a Charter School (Word) is a 22-page document. Petitioners must describe and defend why their school is needed, and how it will operate. The Kansas Charter School Petition Rubric (Word) is a guideline for school districts (a series of checklists) in evaluating petitions.
NCLB Guidance (PDF): Are charter schools subject to No Child Left Behind? (PDF) The short answer: yes.
Vendor Applications instructions (Word) is a file that was used by individuals and firms seeking grants to serve as consultants to charter schools.
