Charter-schools-part-2

Parenting on Purpose:  Charter Schools-Part 2

We talked in the last blog post about charter schools and how they work.  In Part 2, we will talk about who exactly runs them?

Charter schools have a principal and a leadership team, like public schools.  They also have a board that works directly with that school, governing decisions, funding, staffing, and many other areas.  They are not controlled now by the local school board, elected officials. Though the charter has a charter agreement with the public school board, the influence stops there.  The charter school board governs the alliance and as volunteers chosen through a process within the charter school itself.

Given the autonomy of charter schools, their board is integral to the governance of the schools.  Their board of trustees is responsible for the charter school’s academic, financial, and operational quality.  In some states, the governance arrangements must by nonprofit boards.  States such as Arizona, Colorado, Michigan, Virginia, and Wisconsin have such arrangements.

The local school district authorizes the charter school to be in their district, generally focusing on a specific need that the charter sees is not being met within the local school district.  The local school district, as well as the charter, are governed by state law as well.  The laws vary according to the state.   The local school district has the power to approve and close charter schools.  Appeals on both ends of this spectrum can generally be made to the state with an appeal-hearing board, should the charter disagree with the local school district’s decision.

Authorizers can include independent charting boards, state education agencies, higher education institutions, non-educational government entities such as a mayor’s office, nonprofit organizations, and local education agencies or school districts (2018, Education Week).

Parenting on Purpose is a seven-part series that I have written for you.  Here is a link to another in the series, Parenting on Purpose: It’s in the People – Dr. Rich Patterson (pattersonphd.com)

The National Charter School Resource Center is a good source for solid information regarding Charter Schools, Board Governance | NCSRC (ed.gov)

Most charter schools have one campus. However, larger organizations are beginning to open multiple schools across the country.  In Part 3, we will look at whether or not charter schools are nonprofit.

Yours for better parenting,

Rich