Ohio budget update
The state budget bill entered conference committee this week, with Senate and House conferees working to find agreement on the points of difference between the chambers. Fordham’s Aaron Churchill notes that charter funding is likely in line for a healthy boost via increases in per-pupil funding for high-quality charters and the charter facilities allowance, as well as a brand new supplement that would move charters closer to equitable per-student funding. He is also hopeful that a further bump in the latter component could be added in the waning days of June which would move the state’s brick-and-mortar charter schools even closer to funding parity with districts.
Point-by-point response
The Columbus Dispatch recently published a guest commentary that was chock full of the misleading rhetoric and misinformation that critics typically trot out to denigrate the sector. John A. Dues, Chief Learning Officer of the United Schools Network, created a point-by-point response to that commentary and you can check it out here. You can also read Aaron’s original Dispatch editorial, pushing for improved charter funding, that led to the misinformed commentary.
Success is its own response to criticism
Former Florida governor and current Founder and Chair of ExcelinEd Jeb Bush published an op-ed in the Chicago Tribune this week, pointing out the strong student achievement data highlighted in the recent report from CREDO. “Those results on their own are remarkable,” Bush writes, “but perhaps most important for the public policy debate is data showing charter schools have disproportionately helped low-income and minority students—the students these schools are designed to help.”
Teachers say…
This week, the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools released a sneak peek of the findings from their new national survey of public school teachers—district and charter—conducted in mid-May. Among the topline findings: Teachers in both sectors are more concerned about student behavior and discipline issues than they are about pay. The vast majority say they “just want to teach” and report feeling like they have gotten caught in a political crossfire over cultural issues. Interestingly, charter school teachers report significantly higher job satisfaction than their district school peers, and are far more likely to agree with the sentiment that “being a teacher is the most rewarding job in the world”. Full data are to be released later this summer.
The view from New Hampshire
On Monday, legislative conferees in New Hampshire came to agreement on House Bill 536 which would, among other provisions, add some guidelines around the process by which charter schools in the state may buy vacant property from districts. Specifically, the bill requires districts to engage in good faith talks within 60 days of receiving a charter school’s offer to buy a property. House members are scheduled to return to session June 29 to vote on this and other legislation approved by conference this week.
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