A junior Assemblyman, Troy Singleton (D-Burlington) is pushing a package of three education bills, reports today’s NJ Spotlight. One of them is yet another rewrite of NJ’s obsolete charter school legislation but it looks like Singleton may be on to something.
Last Spring Assemblyman Patrick Diegnan proposed his own charter school bill, which played to mixed reviews. (Here’s mine.) One of the most controversial elements was a pander to the anti-charter school lobby: Diegnan’s bill would subject all aspiring charters to a public referendum, effectively stymying the approval of any new charter schools. (No other state in the country, by the way, has a system like that. Some states do include local school boards as one in a list of possible authorizers of new charters.)
Singleton’s bill, however, is respectful of both local communities and new schools. From Spotlight:
“There absolutely should be local say, and I feel strongly about holding a public hearing,” Singleton said. “But a local vote, it would only be less likely to have more charter schools, not more likely.”
Singleton would also open up the use of public funds and loan programs to help cover charter schools’ construction and renovation costs, something that has been on the movement’s wish list since its beginning.
We’ll see if the bill gets any traction. That’s unlikely to happen before Sen. Teresa Ruiz releases her much-anticipated charter school law proposal, but maybe she has a new partner.
