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6-6and7-12 Charter Regulations heard by State Board of Education; Grant funding approved
The Record - Opponents argue against virtual charter schools at N.J. Board of Education meeting… “Lynne Strickland, of Garden State Coalition of Schools, said that in the state’s explanation of the proposed changes, “no mention is made of costs [to districts] and how students will be supported”

Star Ledger - Audience to N.J. Board of Ed: Proposed charter school regulations a mistake…"Consider the old phrase ‘hurry up and wait.’ Let’s get this thing right," said Lynne Strickland, executive director of the Garden State Coalition of Schools.

NJ Spotlight - Opposition to Online Charters Heats Up State BOE Meeting…Innovation chief approved as BOE seems unlikely to slow down charter push

Star Ledger - N.J. Board of Ed accepts more than $600K in donations from two private foundations

The Record - Opponents argue against virtual charter schools at N.J. Board of Education meeting… “Lynne Strickland, of Garden State Coalition of Schools, said that in the state’s explanation of the proposed changes, “no mention is made of costs [to districts] and how students will be supported

Wednesday June 6, 2012, 6:47 PM  BY LESLIE BRODY STAFF WRITER

About 40 advocates implored the state Board of Education in Trenton Wednesday to make sure that proposed changes in rules guiding charter schools don’t give excessive power to the state education chief or allow the proliferation of virtual charters.

One man who remained nearly silent in the crowd was a representative of the Garden State Virtual Charter School, which applied last year to open with a base in Teaneck. The state rejected its bid after vocal protests that the online charter would drain Teaneck district coffers and fail to give students the social supports and teacher interactions required for a well-rounded education.

David Schmidt, vice president of a private curriculum provider called Connections Academy and an adviser to the proposed virtual charter, said the board would likely reapply this fall, and he attended the hearing to assess the regulatory environment.

“The board is committed to opening a high-quality online charter in New Jersey, but the timing is the question,” he said.

His comments came at a public hearing on the Christie administration’s proposals for amending the 1995 charter law. The administration says the tweaks would strengthen the processes for opening, overseeing and closing charters, enabling good charters to flourish and giving families options. Acting commissioner Chris Cerf has promoted successful charters, especially as escapes for children in failing schools.

Opponents of the proposed changes, however, warned they would give the commissioner too much authority and chip away further at local taxpayers’ small opportunities to express their views on the expansions of charters in their communities. One proposed change, for example, would allow the commissioner to approve a “satellite campus” of a charter without a full review of an application.

Another change would let the commissioner grant a struggling charter a “conditional” one-year renewal. “That vastly exceeds the scope of the state’s existing charter legislation,” said Stan Karp of the Education Law Center, a constant critic of the Christie administration. He said adopting the proposals would make the education department vulnerable to lawsuits from districts, taxpayers and charter operators.

Many of the speakers expressed grave concern about changes that would make it easier to launch online charters. Lynne Strickland, of Garden State Coalition of Schools, said that in the state’s explanation of the proposed changes, “no mention is made of costs [to districts] and how students will be supported” by teachers in online schools.

Wednesday’s comments will be sent to the acting commissioner for review, and any changes must be approved by the state board. Ilan Plawker of Englewood Cliffs, the board’s vice president, said he thought speakers showed “unwarranted anxiety” about online charters.

“We’ll see to it [these amendments] are not a tool to break down public schools,” he said. “Our goal is to close the achievement gap.”

Email: brody@northjersey.com

Star Ledger - Audience to N.J. Board of Ed: Proposed charter school regulations a mistake"Consider the old phrase ‘hurry up and wait.’ Let’s get this thing right," said Lynne Strickland, executive director of the Garden State Coalition of Schools.

Published: Thursday, June 07, 2012, 7:30 AM

By Jeanette Rundquist/The Star-LedgerThe Star-Ledger

TRENTON — More than three dozen local school officials, parents, teachers and advocates packed a Trenton meeting room Wednesday to testify before the state Board of Education on proposed charter school regulations that would, among other things, make it easier for virtual charters to operate.

The state board took no action Wednesday on the regulations, but it heard from speaker after speaker who said the rules would take control from local communities; violate existing charter school law; or destroy public schools.

Most asked the board to reject the regulations, or at least put the brakes on the process.

"Consider the old phrase ‘hurry up and wait.’ Let’s get this thing right," said Lynne Strickland, executive director of the Garden State Coalition of Schools.

The voluminous new regulations would remove the requirement that charter schools serve "contiguous" school districts, which would "enable innovative programs that focus on online instruction to locate in New Jersey," according to the proposal.

There are currently five charter schools approved that would offer all, or part, of their instruction online, according to Education Department spokesman Justin Barra. It is not known whether they will open in September.

The proposed charter rules would also allow existing charters to open satellite campuses in struggling school districts, including the low-income former Abbott districts. They would also make changes to the charter school approval and renewal process, among them, creating the option for the education commissioner to grant one-year conditional renewals to "promising" charter schools that are not meeting performance standards.

But most of the commenters took aim at the idea of virtual charters.

"To suggest kindergarten students have the adult level of discipline to learn from a computer ... is unrealistic," said Thomas Papaleo, a Teaneck middle school teacher and president of the Teaneck Township Education Association.

Several speakers expressed concern about the cost of virtual charters — and the idea that children could attend a virtual charter school anywhere, with the bill sent to their local district.

The board broke into two groups to handle the volume of comment, which took about 90 minutes. A decision on the regulations is at least two months away.

Acting Education Commissioner Christopher Cerf said earlier, at the regular meeting of the state board, that New Jersey is still looking at much surrounding virtual charter schools, including whether the per pupil cost should be differentiated from "regular" charter schools.

Virtual charter schools have had a mixed track record in other states. One recent study, from the National Education Policy Center, found "zero high quality research evidence that full-time virtual schooling at the K-12 level is an adequate replacement for traditional face-to-face teaching and learning."

The Newark-based Education Law Center, which advocates on behalf of children in low-income districts, said it "strongly opposes ... the expansion of the state’s charter school program through regulation," and charged the changes amount to "expansion of the charter school program without legislative approval."

 

NJ Spotlight - Opposition to Online Charters Heats Up State BOE Meeting…Innovation chief approved as BOE seems unlikely to slow down charter push

By John Mooney, June 7, 2012 in Education|

The State Board of Education yesterday got an earful on the Christie administration’s push for charter schools and other so-called innovations, both pro and con, some quite public and some a bit quieter.

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The public part was further deliberation and a crowded public hearing on the administration’s controversial regulations proposed for charter schools, including some new powers for the commissioner and new language that will codify online charter schools.

Forty people signed up to speak, a far bigger crowd than usual and voicing a host of concerns about the new rules, from the philosophical to the logistic. Nevertheless, while the state board members listened intently, few of them seemed all that intent to slow down the changes.

The quieter part was the state board’s quick approval earlier in the day of a new assistant commissioner to oversee charter schools and other non-traditional programs as acting Commissioner Chris Cerf’s new “Innovation Officer.”

After considerable discussion in closed session, the board unanimously approved for the job Evo Popoff, a former senior vice president of EdisonLearning, a for-profit education company where Cerf once worked.

Popoff, who attended the meeting but wasn’t made available to reporters, has held a host of positions at EdisonLearning, the New York-based corporation that was an early pioneer in private school management companies. Popoff, a lawyer, joined Edison in 2004, and his resume includes work with local districts in the company’s school improvement, extended learning and online programs.

Cerf spoke briefly afterward about the hire, the last of his major appointments since taking office 16 months ago.

“Evo has extensive experience working with and improving public schools, and also someone who impressed me for the breadth of his vision and his capacity to execute that vision,” Cerf said, adding they did not know each other at Edison and may not have even overlapped.

Starting this week, Popoff will earn $138,000, just shy of Cerf’s $141,200 salary, officials said.

Popoff will have plenty to ponder as Cerf’s push on the innovation front has been among his more controversial, especially around charter schools. And that was on full display yesterday, as the usually sleepy board meetings grew crowded by afternoon as advocates and those who signed up as “concerned citizens” filled two small hearing rooms to object to the charter regulation changes.

Those testifying came mostly from suburbia, communities like Princeton, Westfield, South Brunswick and Cherry Hill, where the growth of charter schools under Christie have seen their stiffest resistance.

Some said the new charter regulations were an outright threat to public education, contending among many complaints that they violate existing state law and could potentially cost local taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars.

“The destabilizing impact of these measures cannot be overstated, and you can be very sure that the destabilization will be dramatic and immediate,” said Andrea Spalla, a member of the Princeton Regional Schools board of education.

Also testifying were familiar groups such as the New Jersey Education Association, the Garden State Coalition of Schools, the Education Law Center and New Jersey School Boards Association. The Education Law Center called for the regulations to be rejected, the school boards group called for a moratorium on new virtual charters.

The proposed regulations actually say little explicitly about online schooling, but make the intent clear. They would remove a requirement that charter schools serve contiguous districts, language that were seen as a block to statewide online schools.

Still, even without the change, the state has already given preliminary approval to two online statewide charter schools, both seeking to open next fall and already accepting students for enrollment.

Cerf has said that there remain some questions to work out around the schools, including funding and oversight, and he said yesterday that those questions have yet to be fully resolved. The decision on final charters for this fall’s opening is expected in July.

Still, there appeared little resistance on the state board itself.

“I think all these people are way ahead of where we are headed,” said Ilan Plawker, the board’s vice president who led one of the two hearings. “We’re not talking about allowing random charters throughout the state.”

In the other room, board members said the administration’s expansion of the charter school office and new accountability rules for the charters, including in the new regulations, contradict the critics’ claims.

“I think there are a lot brakes in place already,” said Claire Chamberlain Eckert, a board member.

Still others said some important points were raised in the hearing that would be taken into consideration. “This is what our job is, listening to the public,” said Peter Simon, another member.

And the board’s president, Arcelio Aponte, said the public input would be important.

“For the most part, I am comfortable with what the administration is presenting, but we always want to make sure there are checks and balances,” he said.

Star Ledger - N.J. Board of Ed accepts more than $600K in donations from two private foundations

Published: Wednesday, June 06, 2012, 2:35 PM Updated: Wednesday, June 06, 2012, 2:48 PM

By Jeanette Rundquist/The Star-LedgerThe Star-Ledger

With little discussion in public session, the state Board of Education today accepted donations totalling more than $600,000 from two private foundations.

After the Newark-based Education Law Center wrote a letter to the board requesting that they defer accepting the funds, citing the "need for transparency, accountability and public confidence," the board asked the state Attorney General's Office if their objections had any merit, board members said.

The matter was discussed in closed session, citing the "legal letter." But board member Ron Butcher said "in their (the AG's) mind, there are no issues."

The board voted unanimously to accept a donation of $430,000 from the Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation, and $200,000 from Startup: Education, the foundation created by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.

Acting Education Commissioner Christopher Cerf said he considered the ELC's objection "baseless" and "utterly without substance," and several board members said they were glad to have the funds to put toward department programs.

The $430,000 Broad grant will go to training and professional development for Regional Achievement Centers, that will work with failing schools; and to "retain consultation" and improve the state Office of Charter Schools.

The $200,000 from StartUp would fund grant writing support and "travel and other expenses" associated with finding turnaround partners and "innovative school solutions