Ranking Charter School Laws

This is family policy matter program is produced by the North Carolina family policy Council of profamily research and education organization dedicated to strengthening and preserving the family, and often the studio hears John Rushton, president of the North Carolina family policy Council, thank you for joining us this week for family policy matters is our pleasure to have Todd debarked with us on the program. Todd is senior vice president for state advocacy and support at the national alliance for public charter schools. He is with us today to talk about the national alliance for public charter schools annual report, measuring up to the model. A ranking of state charter school laws 2014.

We will be talking about the report's key findings, including how North Carolina ranked this year and where we can improve our states charter school law, welcome to the program is great to have you with us. Thank you for having me talk before we get into the report defined. If you would for public charter schools and tell us how many states have enacted laws allowing for public charter schools sure public charter schools are public schools that are given the freedom to be more innovative and a variety of ways.

In exchange for that freedom. They are held to a higher level of accountability that traditional public schools. There are currently 42 states and the District of Columbia that have enacted public charter school laws will thank you and I think it's really important for listeners to understand that charter schools and we hear a lot about charter schools but the charter schools or public schools and think from the initiation of charter schools years ago and the continuation of those guys become more well understood by the general public but we still run into circumstances where individuals don't fully understand that charter schools are in fact public schools. Yes, that remains a challenge for us.

I think in a number of states, even 20 years after the first law was passed in the first schools opened but you are correct. These are public schools that are free there open to any student that wants to enroll on their no admissions requirements for them will tell us briefly about the annual report output as it set out to measure regarding state charter schools sure so we about five years ago I put together a model law for charter schools that and in the process we had reflected on what had worked well in charter school law and supporting the creation of great charter schools, and it wouldn't haven't worked in the first 15 or so years of the movement at that time and I put out a model law and then shortly thereafter starting in 2010 began evaluating each of the states charter laws against the 20 components from our perspective that are central to have in place in a model charter school law and describe all of those 20 components but you did mention that the report does evaluate charter schools.

According to 20 different component sure with this if you will what you believe to be the top five most important components that contribute to a successful or good charter school law. Sure, the first component. I think it's at the bar that what we call the charter bargain that I mentioned at the outset, which is giving school leaders and educators in the schools. The freedom to innovate. So the first component really has to do with ensuring that public charter schools do have that flexibility to innovate the second one is the other half of the charter bargain which is accountability ensuring that public charter schools are held to higher level of accountability than traditional public school so economy and accountability. Number three is ensuring that charter schools have equitable funding as compared to traditional public school so when a parent transfers. One of their children from attritional public school to a public charter school. All of the federal, state or local dollars. Follow that child to his or her new school just as it would if the child transferred from one traditional public school to another, the fourth really important component of a place is has to do with facility support for charter schools. Charters unable to raise monies through bonds taxes that traditional schools are able to do and so they usually have to pay for their facilities out of their operating budget and that some states have stepped up and provided them additional resources for facilities and we think that's really important because that is a big challenge that charter school leaders face and then lastly, I think it's really important for there not to be any The Growth of Public Charter Schools.

If You Have the Accountability and Place That I Mentioned Earlier in Good Authorizing in Place. You Don't Need to Put Artificial On the Number of Charter Schools for the Number Students I Can Enroll in Them.

The Sector Should Be Allowed to Grow to Meet Their Parental Demand That's out There for More Public School Options Are Literally Helpful for Better Understanding of the Various Components and Those That Are Considered to Be Most Important Now in the Report You Rank All of the States That Have Charter Schools I Imagine Will Go in on Their Their Success in the Environment Whether It Is Positive or Could Be Improved for the Existence and Growth of Charter Schools and the Prosperity of Charter School.

Some of the Top Ranking States in the Report and Why. Sure so That in This Year's Report. As I Mentioned 42 States and DCF Charter Law, so We Write the State from 143 and the Top Scoring Top Ranking State This Year Has, As It Has Been in for the Five Years We've Gone the Report's Minnesota.

They Created an Environment Which Meets A Lot Of the Components That We Have in Our Model Law and Then Our State. That's Number Two This Year That Moved up from Number Nine. The Previous Year's Indiana Dave Made a Number of Positive Policy Improvements to the Law over the Last Few Years Which Which Led to Them Moving up in Our Rankings and Then the Last Thing I Mentioned Is Louisiana. Louisiana Also Has Made a Number of Changes over the Last Few Years. It Has Led to It Gradually Moving up in Our Ranking. Number Three, and so Those Are the Top Three States in This Year's Report, Minnesota, Indiana, Louisiana, I Would Be Remiss If I Did Not Ask or Worded North Carolina Rank on the List and Did We Show Improvement from Our Ranking Last Year and in Recent Previous Years.

Yes, North Carolina Is Similar to Some of the States I Just Mentioned Has Also Been Making Improvements to Its Charter School Laws over the Last Few Years. This Year It's in the Middle of the Packet That Number 19 but It Moved up Four Spots from Number 23 the Previous Years and over the Last Few Years It's Passed A Few Different Bills to Better Support Public Charter Schools, Most Notably in 2011 Listed a Cap That Had on the Growth of Charters When North Carolina First Passes Charter School on 1996.

It Only Allowed 100 Charter Schools in the Growth Met That Fairly Quickly and Probably at about 2000 2001, and so the Work Wasn't A Lot Of Growth in the School Movement in North Carolina for about a Decade until Was Listed 2011. The Pent-Up Demand That Had Been Created Because of the Captives Is Being Unleashed Now As Were Seeing 2526 Schools Open This Fall and Dissipating Another 2526 Schools Open in the Fall 2014. Charlie Was a Great Improvement in a Measure That the Nuclear Family Policy Council Had Been Involved with since the Beginning and in Enacting the Original Charter School Law in 1996, but Also Working for Years and Here's an Ultimately Easy Set in 2011 Lifting out Arbitrary Of 100 Charters in the State Now from Your Perspective, Did the Removal of North Carolina's Charter School Simply Allow More Charters in the State or Did It Serve to Improve the Environment for Charter Schools in Other Ways. Yet When They with the State Passed a Bill to Lift the They Also Included Some Other Items in It That Related to Accountability. So We Think That Was a Good a Good Step. And Then This Most Recent Legislative Session. They Passed Another Bill in 2013 That Also Gave Schools. The More Flexibility around Their Staffing Decisions Have Been That Also Included Some Additional Accountability Requirements, so I Think North Carolina Is Continuing to Make Improvements That Both Open up the Charter School Sector for More Growth and Flexibility While Also Continuing to Strengthen Accountability. The Report Offers Recommendations for States to Help Them Improve Their Charter Schools and As You Mentioned Were Carolina Continues to Improve in This Area, but Certainly There Is Continued Improvement That We Can Make Some Ways That North Carolina Can Improve Its Charter Schools and Make Our Educational Environment in North Carolina More Parentally for This Educational Option That the Recommendations We Have for North Carolina Are Fairly Similar to Recommendations We Have for Most States As over the Last Five Years or so As Lots of States Have Made Lots of Improvements to the Charter School Laws or Suspend a Significant Amount of Activity across the Country, Which Were Generally Pleased about That. So It States Have Lifted Capt. Provided More Autonomy and Strengthen Accountability Than Some of the Things Listed The Things We Talked about the One Area Where There's Been Some Movement, but Not Enough Has To Do with the Two Components I Mentioned around Equitable Funding for Charter School Students and Equitable Access to Facilities, Funding and Facility Support, and I Think Those Are Two Areas Were North Carolina Also Needs to Improve Its Laws to Ensure Equity for Charter School Students and to Ensure That There Is Equitable Facility Support for Them and I Think the Other Thing I Would Mention Is in North Carolina.

If You Want to Start a Charter School. You Have To Apply to the State and As the Charter School Movement Is Growing Hundred 27 Schools Open This Year and Another 25 or so Coming Online.

The State Needs to Ensure That the Office at the State Department Of Education That's Approving Applications and Overseeing Schools and Making Decisions about Whether School Should Be Renewed or Not or Closed Has the Capacity to Successfully Do That Job Because at the End of the Day We A Lot More Charters Just for the Sake of Having More Schools and Want to Make Sure That Were Creating More Quality Options for Families Will I Think That's a Great Point and That's Something That Our Listeners Need to Understand Well in This Discussion, but Calls Think Generally One Concern That We See, Especially from Folks Who May Consider Charter Schools to Although They Are Public Schools to in Some Way Be a Threat to the Traditional Public School System Is That There Is a Significant Level of Accountability Only Schools and We We Really Need to Make Sure That That Remains in Place. Of Course Accountability within the Education Establishment in the Department and the State Board Of Education and Local Officials As Well, but Also the Ultimate Accountability Which Comes from Parents of the Students That Attend the Schools and so I Think It's Important for Folks to Recognize That As North Carolina Expands the Number of Charter Schools Are Able to Operate in the State That There Are Significant Measures of Accountability That Exist Now and That Remain in Place and It's Really Important for Us to Ensure That Accountability Continues and That If That Is in Place and If the Structures That Exist Are Doing What They Should Be Doing, Then We Can Feel Very Comfortable and Confident That Educational Options Are Provided by These Charter Schools Are Going to Not Only Expand Opportunities for Students across the State, but Enable Them to Seek out and Enable Their Parents to Seek out the Educational Options That Are Most Suitable for Their Children Absolutely Taught We Are Nearly Out Of Time for This Week Working on Listeners Go to Read the Full Report, Measuring up to the Model and Learn More about the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools Yes They Can Go to Our Website at www.publiccharters.org great in that website again is www.public charter's.org and we would certainly encourage our listeners to go and avail themselves of the information is available. They are to learn more about public charter schools and educational options that they provide Todd Seymour, thank you so much for being with us on family policy matters. Thanks for the opportunity to be with you today.

Before we close. I would also like to recommend an excellent resource to help our listeners stay on top of some of the major public policy and cultural issues facing families in North Carolina today. The North Carolina family policy Council's quarterly magazine family North Carolina magazine is filled with engaging articles on some of the key public policy and cultural issues facing families in our study today.

The latest issue of family North Carolina magazine is available on our website in a digital version. Visit our website@ncfamily.org family policy matters. Information and analysis, future North Carolina family policy Council join us weekly discussion on policy issues affecting the family. If you have questions or comments. 91 907-0800 visit our website and see family.1