Photo by Seth Sawyers

Photo by Seth Sawyers

The closure and bankruptcy of a West Sacramento charter school this fall highlights the State Lath of Education's increasing role in granting charters to charter schools—and its limited ability to oversee those schools.

Equally charter schools proceed to expand dramatically across the land, the number authorized and overseen by the lath has grown from half-dozen lease schools five years agone to 31 today.

Nearly two decades after California'south charter schools were first established, the oversight structure of charter schools may need an overhaul.  That could include setting upward a split lease authorizing board to relieve pressures on an overburdened Land Board that is spending increasing amounts of time on lease schools, which serve nearly vi per centum of students in the state's public schools.

"One of the things we have learned is that the work of authorizing and oversight is a lot tougher than anyone thought information technology would be," said Eric Premack, executive director of the Charter Schools Evolution Centre.

In a report issued concluding November, the Niggling Hoover Commission, a state oversight agency, ended that "the State Lath lacks the capacity to provide effective oversight for its growing stable of lease schools while simultaneously setting statewide education policy, its broader and more pregnant function."

The State Board itself, which is scheduled to see only once every 2 months over the coming year, has no oversight staff, simply relies on the Charter Schools Division in the California Section of Education to carry out its responsibilities nether the constabulary. On a most basic level, charter schools consume growing chunks of State Lath agendas, crowding out the time the board can devote to policy decisions affecting the vast bulk of California'southward students.  On the first 24-hour interval of its September coming together, for example, 7 out of xi agenda items related to charter schools.

Richard Zeiger, principal deputy superintendent in the California Department of Education, pointed out that the entire charter school sectionalisation in the section has a staff of nigh 30 people. They are responsible for treatment the funding streams for all charter schools and numerous other aspects of lease administration for the unabridged state, on top of intensive oversight of schools authorized by the country board.

"We have concluded upward with more than and more of them (land-authorized charters) because the board has approved them subsequently they were rejected at a local level," he said.  The state, he said, was never meant to be put in a position of being a major authorizer of charter schools. That function was supposed to exist carried out a local level.

In fact, the vast majority of the land's nearly 1000 charter schools received their charters from local schoolhouse districts. But anyone wanting to open a charter school can appeal to the Land Board of Educational activity to seek a charter, after its application has been rejected by a local school board or its county role of teaching.

That is what happened in the instance of the California College, Career and Technical Education Middle or CCCTEC, which was showtime denied a charter by the Washington Unified School District and and so by the Yolo County Board of Education, which in a unanimous vote final yr described in painful particular the charter applicant's numerous shortcomings.

"The petitioner is demonstrably unlikely to successfully implement the plan set forth in the petition," the Yolo County Board of Instruction concluded in its denial of the school's charter application.  (Disclosure: The president of the Yolo County board was Davis Campbell, who is an EdSource lath fellow member.)

The would-be charter school appealed to the State Board, and then consisting of members appointed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, many with a very strong pro-charter tilt.  The board granted the charter—forth with assuming the responsibility for overseeing information technology.

Poster at CCCTEC Charter School on opening day, September 2022 ~ Photo by Louis Freedberg

Poster at CCCTEC Charter School on opening mean solar day, September 2022 Photo by Louis Freedberg

In that location were problems with the schoolhouse from its opening day, as the operator of the school has himself conceded. Enrollments never came close to original projections, and the charter struggled financially throughout its beingness until its closure on September 2 this year, one year after it opened.

Over the terminal few months, the board and educational activity department officials have spent large amounts of time trying to sort out the mess, including lengthy messages from State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson seeking explanation for checks spent on items like pizza from Straw Hat.

Michael Kirst, the president of the State Board, said that the board does have a part to play in granting charters. "There are charter schools that are turned downwards past both local districts and counties that deserve to operate and then there needs to exist some state entreatment mechanism," he said.

He said that he felt the board could handle its current responsibilities. But if the board was asked to have on an ever-increasing role in granting charters and forth with them more than oversight responsibilities, the country lath would either demand more staff or to consider a separate charter board along the lines recommended by the Little Hoover Commission. As proposed by the commission, a "Board of Charter Schools" would be appointed by the governor and the Legislature.

"I'm not sure if information technology's the correct style to go, just it is certainly on the table in terms of being thought virtually as our charter school role expands," Kirst said.

Kirst also said the large—and growing—numbers of charter schools in the state "raise real problems about the capacity of the lath and the department (the California Department of Teaching) to practice this task that we're being asked to do  regarding lease schools."

Although declining to specifically endorse the idea of a divide state charter lath, Jed Wallace, president of the California Charter Schools Association, said the Piffling Hoover Commission report contained "thoughtful recommendations" and that his clan would exist "happy to exist function of any conversations" regarding alternative authorizing procedures.

On a more basic level, Eric Premack raised concerns about having local school districts oversee the vast majority of charters. He said schoolhouse districts are arguably "the most ill-suited agencies you can think of (to exercise that), specially those in financial difficulties themselves."

Premack proposed a range of charter authorizers who could specialize in different types of lease schools and in different geographic regions.  For case, i charter board could specialize in overseeing online or virtual charter schools. Another could oversee the dozen or and then Montessori charter schools. Yet another could focus on a detail geographic expanse.

Whatever new structures are settled on, some changes will be essential, the state didactics department's Zeiger said. He said his department is constantly called on to put out fires, which consumes vast amounts of fourth dimension. "We need to move from putting out fires, and talk to the Legislature about how to preclude there existence so many fires to brainstorm with," he said.

For more background on the charter schoolhouse movement in California, check out EdSource's previous publications on the discipline and a related edpost, Country looks into loss of funds by outset-up charter schools .

Update September 30, 2011. Based on revised figures from the California Section of Pedagogy, this story contains slightly different figures of the number of state-authorized charters than its original version.  CCCTEC is non part of the tally because it has relinquished its lease.  For a list of charters, run across the list hither.

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