NJ Education Report

Education Law Center has just released a somewhat bizarre statement that claims that Assemblyman Patrick Diegnan’s charter school law proposal, A 1477,  represents a “broad consensus” and a “highly collaborative process.” The release then goes on to list the collaborators of this consensus. Topping the list is the New Jersey Charter School Association. Other members of the club include Save Our Schools NJ, the Garden State Coalition of Schools, state professional associations,  and Education Law Center.

For clarification, look at NJ Charter School Association’s June 10th testimony to the Assembly Education Committee.  Here’s the highlights:

• Any high quality public charter school law must fully recognize and embrace the basic premise that drives public charter school policy…provide public charter schools with the highest level of operational autonomy and hold public charter schools to the highest level of accountability. As drafted, A4177 fails to recognize that basic premise.

• In analyzing the proposals contained within A4177 we asked ourselves one fundamental question — will the proposed language in this bill result in high quality public charter schools that deliver a high quality public education to kids? Unfortunately, as proposed, A4177 fails to move the needle towards the high quality benchmark.

• This bill also fails to address the funding inequities New Jersey’s public charter schools face and the desperate need for facilities funding.

• Any legislation that requires a referendum for a public charter school to open and/or expand would stop the growth of successful schools when demand is at an all-time high.

• One of the primary reasons New Jersey’s public charter school law is weak, is the lack of multiple charter school authorizers. In New Jersey, the DOE is the state’s sole authorizer. New Jersey is one of only four states where the State board of Education is the sole authorizer. A4177 proposes the addition of a School Review Board. Unfortunately, the proposed school review board serves as an additional step in the authorizing process and does not create an additional new charter school authorizer.

Not much of a consensus.