House Bill 856, which had bipartisan movement in the legislature, would raise the cap on charter schools. Although the legislation seems to be a step in the right direction, many in the parental school choice movement believe that it may, in its current form, be one step forward but two steps back for educational reform in North Carolina.
Under the proposed bill, the state’s charter school cap of 100 would increase nominally to 106. In exchange for this minor increase, new performance standards would be imposed, allowing the state to shut down charter schools that actually outperform local, traditional public schools. This is of particular concern for schools serving at-risk student populations, especially in light of North Carolina’s startling achievement gap for low-income and minority students.
In response to the potentially unequal standards that this bill would create, PEFNC has collaborated with charter school leaders and advocates from across the state to voice concern and prevent any inadvertent damage to North Carolina’s public charter school movement. In a joint effort, PEFNC and the N.C. Alliance for Public Charter Schools published the column, “Doing Better for Charter Schools” in the News and Observer.
Some fear that, as it stands, the bill could be a Trojan horse with the appearance of working toward educational reform – increasing the state’s chances of securing millions in federal stimulus money—but the actual potential to shut down charter schools that target the achievement gap and, worse, eliminate the schools altogether. “Most importantly,” said Darrell Allison, PEFNC President, “we don’t want to see a decline in those schools serving low-income, mostly minority populations as a result of unreasonable evaluation measures.” PEFNC will continue to work with the leaders in the state’s charter school community in their fight to make necessary improvements to this legislation.
