Tuesday, August 28, 2012

Information about charter school authorizers


The charter school authorizer is the agency which receives a charter school application, reviews it, and then ultimately determines if the proposed charter school will open, or not. The authorizing agency is also tasked with providing some measure of oversight during the term of the charter school’s contract; it is sometimes referred to as the sponsor. One concern which has arisen in this era of rapid charter school expansion is inadequate staffing of those agencies’ charter school offices.  

The top ten states with the most authorizers are:

CA
293
WI
84
OH
69
OR
67
PA
51
MN
49
CO
47
FL
45
GA
39
MI
32

“Shopping” for an authorizer occurs in states that have multiple authorizers with jurisdiction over the same physical area. For example in California, if an initial charter school application or renewal is rejected by the board of a local city school district, the applicant can then seek approval from board of that district's County Office of Education, and/or from the California State Board of Education. This regularly occurs. In at least one case in Oklahoma, the local school board refused to renew the charter for a school with a long history of problems (note: it is a Gulen charter school). The school then sought and received approval from a local higher education institution (Langston University) which enabled Langston U. to receive a 5% cut of the charter school’s funding.

Charter school promoters are actively monitoring the growth of the charter school market share. They help each other with strategies and techniques that advance the establishment of more charter schools. They put their heads together to steadily press on the loosening of restrictions on charter school law in each and every state. 

Charter school promoters are extremely well-funded by a small set of America’s most powerful families. These families have established organizations into which they pour their immense wealth, which are then used to fund projects which advance those individuals' own notions about public education policy many aspects of which have never been proven by research, or are even at the top of the list for changes that public school families desire. Unfortunately, the interests of these arrogant and powerful individuals have everything to do with the privatization of a valuable public asset as well as the diminishing of the public's genuine power.

The following data is provided by the National Association of Charter School Authorizers and the U.S. Census. NACSA’s main funders are the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Robertson Foundation, and The Walton Family Foundation.*

State
# authorizers
# charter schools
Authorizer types**
Public elementary and secondary school enrollment: 2008-2009
AK
8
24
LEA
132,000
AR
1
30
SEA
481,000
AZ
7
507
ICB, LEA, SEA
1,076,000
CA
293
900
LEA, SEA
6,177,000
CO
47
70
ICB, LEA
832,000
CT
1
18
SEA
564,000
DC
1
97
ICB
69,000
DE
2
19
SEA, LEA
125,000
FL
45
460
HEI, LEA
2,635,000
GA
39
91
ICB, LEA
1,668,000
HI
1
31
ICB
180,000
IA
8
8
LEA
482,000
ID
14
41
ICB, LEA
276,000
IL
9
116
LEA, SEA
2,097,000
IN
5
60
HEI, LEA, MUN, SEA
1,047,000
KS
23
32
LEA
469,000
LA
6
92
LEA, SEA
691,000
MA
1
63
SEA
957,000
MD
6
40
LEA
848,000
ME
TBD***
2
LEA, SEA
184,000
MI
32
249
HEI, LEI
1,618,000
MN
49
148
HEI, LEA, NFP, SEA
837,000
MO
12
36
HEI, LEA
917,000
NC
1
100
SEA
1,477,000
NH
1
10
SEA
197,000
NJ
1
73
SEA
1,387,000
NM
18
81
LEA, SEA
333,000
NV
5
28
LEA, SEA
429,000
NY
2****
176
HEI, LEA, SEA
2,766,000
OH
69
342
HEI, LEA, NFP
1,762,000
OK
4
18
HEI, LEA
655,000
OR
67
108
LEA, SEA
554,000
PA
51
146
LEA, SEA
1,762,000
RI
1
15
SEA
144,000
SC
16
44
ICB, LEA
723,000
TN
3
29
LEA
973,000
TX
15
572
LEA, SEA
4,850,000
UT
7
86
ICB, LEA
583,000
VA
3
4
LEA
1,245,000
WI
84
209
HEI, LEA, MUN
872,000
WY
3
3
LEA
88,000
AL
No legislation


749,000
KY
No legislation


676,000
MS
No legislation


492,000
MT
No legislation


142,000
ND
No legislation


93,000
NE
No legislation


295,000
SD
No legislation


124,000
VT
No legislation


86,000
WA
No legislation


1,035,000
WV
No legislation


283,000


* The National Alliance for Public Charter Schools actively monitors the charter school market share. Its funders include the Annie E. Casey Foundation, the Doris and Donald Fisher Fund, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Joyce Foundation, the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, the Robertson Foundation, the Charles and Helen Schwab Foundation, the William E. Simon Foundation, and the Walton Family Foundation, as well as the National Charter School Resource Center in association with the currently very charter school-friendly U.S. Department of Education.

** Authorizer types
  • HEI = Higher Education Institutions
  • ICB = Independent Chartering Boards
  • LEA = Local Education Agencies (school districts)
  • MUN = Mayors/Municipalities
  • NFP = Not-For-Profit Organizations
  • SEA = State Education Agencies (commissioners, state boards of education, or offices within SEAs that report to commissioners or state boards of education)

*** Maine’s charter school law is relatively new (2011). It allows two types of entities to authorize charter schools: 1.) the Maine Charter School Commission (allowed to authorize a maximum of 10 charter schools throughout the state during the first 10 years) and 2.) Local school boards (authorizes charter schools within the boundaries of their school units)

**** NACSA's website reports 4 authorizers in NY. This was corrected by a reader. See the first comment.

####

2 comments:

Leonie Haimson said...

There are now only two charter authorizers in NYS: the Regents/State Ed Dept; and SUNY (State University of NY.) I'm not sure there were ever four authorizers as your chart says, but the NYC Chancellor used to be able to authorize charters until that power was taken away from him by the Legislature.

The Perimeter Primate said...

Thank you, Leonie! It looks like the paid experts can't even keep track of things properly.