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.
**** NACSA's website reports 4 authorizers in NY. This was corrected by a reader. See the first comment.
####
2 comments:
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.
Thank you, Leonie! It looks like the paid experts can't even keep track of things properly.
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