Quality Public Education for All New Jersey Students

 

 
     GSCS Statement Condemning Violence Motivated by Race, Ethnicity or Sexual Orientation
     Latest Testimonies and Letters
     Virtual and In-Person Meeting Calendar for 2023-2024
     GSCS Critical Issues
     3-28-24 Education in the News
     3-27-24 Education in the News
     3-26-24 Education in the News
     3-25-24 Education in the News
     3-22-24 Education in the News
     3-21-24 Education in the News
     3-20-24 Education in the News
     3-19-24 Education in the News
     3-18-24 Education in the News
     3-15-24 Education in the News
     3-14-24 Education in the News
     3-12-24 Education in the News
     3-11-24 Education in the News
     3-8-24 Education in the News
     3-7-24 Educaiton in the News
     3-6-24 Education in the News
     3-5-24 Education in the News
     3-4-24 Education in the News
     3-1-24 Education in the News
     2-29-24 Educaiton in the News
     2-28-24 Education in the News
     2-27-24 Education in the News
     2-26-24 Education in the News
     2-23-24 Education in the News
     2-22-24 Education in the News
     2-21-24 Education in the News
     2-20-24 Education in the News
     2-19-24 Education in the News
     2-16-24 Education in the News
     2-15-24 Education in the News
     2-14-24 Education in the News
     2-13-24 Education in the News
     2-12-24 Education in the News
     2-9-24 Education in the News
     2-8-24 Education in the News
     2-7-24 Education in the News
     2-6-24 Education in the News
     2-5-24 Education in the news
     2-2-24 Education in the News
     2-1-24 Education in the News
     1-31-24 Education in the News
     1-30-24 Education in the News
     1-29-24 Education in the News
     1-26-24 Education in the News
     1-25-24 Education in the News
     1-24-24 Education in the News
     1-23-24 Education in the News
     1-22-24 Education in the News
     1-19-24 Education in the News
     1-18-24 Education in the News
     1-17-24 Education in the News
     1-16-24 Education in the News
     1-12-24 Education in the News
     1-11-24 Education in the News
     1-10-23 Education in the News
     1-9-24 Education in the News
     1-8-24 Education in the News
     1-5-24 Education in the News
     1-4-24 Education in the News
     1-3-23 Education in the News
     1-2-24 Education in the News
     2023-2024 Announcement Archive
     Older Archives
6-5-13 Virtual Charter Schools Ruled Out by Education Commissioner Cerf
The Record - N.J.'s education commissioner scuttles state's proposed 'virtual' charter schools… “New Jersey’s education commissioner has scratched plans to let the state’s first two virtual charter schools open in the fall, citing questions about their legal foundation and “serious concerns” about the state’s ability to oversee them.

NJ Spotlight – Cerf Pulls Plug on Online Charter Schools…Growing opposition to virtual charters, legal challenges and gray areas help inform commissioner’s decision

The Record - N.J.'s education commissioner scuttles state's proposed 'virtual' charter schools… “New Jersey’s education commissioner has scratched plans to let the state’s first two virtual charter schools open in the fall, citing questions about their legal foundation and “serious concerns” about the state’s ability to oversee them.

 

Tuesday June 4, 2013, 7:38 PM BY LESLIE BRODY

 New Jersey’s education commissioner has scratched plans to let the state’s first two virtual charter schools open in the fall, citing questions about their legal foundation and “serious concerns” about the state’s ability to oversee them.

Virtual charter schools teach children mostly online instead of face-to-face. Supporters argue that they let students who don’t thrive in conventional settings work at home at their own pace, but critics say cyber charters do little to help children learn social skills, are hard to monitor and might waste tax dollars.

Education Commissioner Chris Cerf granted conditional approval to the two virtual charters two years ago, but in letters dated Monday he denied them final permission to open in September. The New Jersey Virtual Charter School aimed to serve 150 high school students from Paterson, Camden, Perth Amboy and Neptune, and the Newark-based New Jersey Virtual Academy proposed to educate 850 children in kindergarten through 10th grade.

Founders of the proposed virtual charters could not be reached for comment Tuesday. No other proposals for virtual charters are pending in New Jersey, an Education Department official said.

Opponents had fought for a moratorium on virtual charters until educators could scrutinize their results more thoroughly. Cerf’s letters to the applicants noted a range of concerns about the “legal and practical implications” of entirely virtual charter schools because the state’s 1995 charter law never anticipated them.

“Despite the presence of virtual charter schools in other states, there is inadequate independent research into both their academic effectiveness, as well as the necessary elements needed to ensure effective oversight,” Cerf wrote.

A proposal for a virtual charter school with a base in Teaneck sparked a furor two years ago because its application said the school would have a $5 million profit after one year, and the state told the Teaneck school district to set aside $15 million in case the charter drew all of its students from the township. The state ultimately rejected that proposal.

In New Jersey, charter schools receive funding for each student equal to about 90 percent of the per-pupil spending in the student's home district, with the money coming from the home district. Online schools are cheaper to operate than brick-and-mortar institutions, but New Jersey has no mechanism for allocating less money to virtual charters than conventional charter schools.

The New Jersey Virtual Charter School’s proposal ran counter to a rule that charters must serve “contiguous districts.” The Education Department had sought to delete that rule, but Cerf said in his letter that the requirement was being kept, citing objections to its removal from critics who said it would be logistically difficult for charters to draw students from too wide an area.

New Jersey has 86 charter schools, which are taxpayer-funded but independently operated. Boosters say they are innovative havens that give options to children in troubled districts, but opponents argue they drain resources from traditional public schools.

Email: brody@northjersey.com. On Twitter: @lesliebrody

NJ Spotlight – Cerf Pulls Plug on Online Charter Schools…Growing opposition to virtual charters, legal challenges and gray areas help inform commissioner’s decision

By John Mooney, June 5, 2013 in Education

State Education Commissioner Chris Cerf yesterday told the organizers of two proposed online charter schools that he would not grant them the final approval needed to open next fall.

Related Links

The decision comes as something of a surprise.

A year ago the two charters -- a K-12 school in Newark and a high school for dropouts in Monmouth and Ocean Counties -- appeared poised to become the state's first all-online programs. Both had received preliminary approval from the Christie administration.

But support slowly wilted over the past year, as community and political opposition mounted. And K12 Inc., the nation’s largest online education firm, was connected with both charter applications as well, prompting debate over the for-profit company’s role.

The Legislature held a handful of hearings on the topic, and the state’s dominant teachers union -- the New Jersey Education Association -- has filed a challenge in court.

In the face of the growing disapproval, Cerf hedged in his support as well. He postponed awarding the final charters this past summer and has said little on the subject since then, before disclosing his final decision yesterday.

In the letters to the schools yesterday, Cerf cited the many uncertainties about both their legal standing and the effectiveness of online education. The state’s charter school law has no provisions for virtual learning, not surprising given that the measure is 17 years old.

“Uncertainty about the legal foundations for fully virtual charter schools and the Department’s serious concerns regarding its ability to effectively oversee such schools precludes the Department from granting . . . a final charter,” Cerf wrote to one of the schools.

The schools aren’t going down without complaint. The leaders of the New Jersey Virtual Academy Charter School, which would be operated out of Newark by K12, immediately released a letter to Cerf outlining their concerns over first being postponed a year ago and then rejected outright.

“We now find ourselves in the position of having to tell 850 children, their families, and the teachers your staff insisted we hire as part of the compliance process that, once again, the school will be denied the opportunity to open and prove ourselves,” read the letter from Michael Pallante, chairman of the proposed school’s board.

“Not once during all of the hearings, trainings, demonstration sessions, e-mail, and telephone conversations were we ever told that this was going to happen to us and to these families once again,” he said.

The school noted that it had also hired experts to speak to the legality and effectiveness of the programs. K12 also signed on with the state’s top lobbying firm, Princeton Public Affairs Group.

Pallante did not say if the school would appeal the decision, but indicated that it would at least push for reconsideration.

“Commissioner, we request a meeting with you as soon as possible and at the same time ask that you reconsider your decision,” Pallante wrote.

“We have done everything asked of us, we have been a good partner, and we have done these things because deep down we believed that you and Gov. Christie were champions of parental choice and would stand up for New Jersey families over the objections of the NJEA and other critics,” he continued.

The other rejected school, which was to be operated out of the Monmouth-Ocean Educational Services Commission, had been on shakier ground, and its founder said he was likely to withdraw the application. The program was intended to serve potential dropouts in four communities, but had difficulties in signing up the required numbers.

Tim Nogueira, the district’s superintendent, said the enrollment problems and difficulties in meeting the state’s requirements “were just too much to overcome.” He said the state had plenty of time putting in place the required regulations and other guidelines to help schools like his, but did not appear intent on doing so.

“It is obvious that New Jersey is not a pro-online state, and is already well behind in this,” he said. “That’s unfortunate.”

Critics applauded Cerf’s decision, saying he must have heard the many concerns about both the effectiveness and the potential profits of the programs.

“This would have been a disaster for taxpayers and a disaster for children, and we are happy that he did the right thing,” said Julia Sass Rubin, a spokeswoman for Save Our Schools New Jersey, a pro-public school group.

“We hope that he will continue to make the right decision,” she said. Steve Wollmer, the NJEA’s communications director, said it was “an experiment we don’t need to take in New Jersey.”

“We’re pleased with the decision,” he said. “From an education and policy perspective, it’s the right one.” Cerf had faced off on the topic with state Sen. Loretta Weinberg (D-Bergen) just the day before at a legislative hearing on Gov. Chris Christie’s budget. Weinberg had been one of the online schools’ biggest critics, backing one bill that would have placed a moratorium on such models.

Cerf hinted at his decision to come, and Weinberg said she would be ready for it if he gave the schools the go-ahead.

“I’ll give you fair warning,” Weinberg said. “This is not a great way to educate children, and this is a very risky field that we are getting into.”