"Charter school laws have been all over the news lately, with a second national organization releasing their rankings of state charter laws at the same time states are revising their laws in order to be eligible for the Race to the Top (RTTT) Fund’s $4.35 billion. Charter laws vary tremendously state-by-state, but the federal Department of Education has been pushing hard on the charter quantity issue, urging states to give up arbitrary caps in order to apply for the RTTT money.
A lesson from my home state, Iowa, shows this effort is not as meaningful as it might appear.
Iowa has long had one of the weakest charter laws in the country. It technically has one, which is more than can be said for 11 remaining states, but it’s law limits charter authorizers to school districts themselves (often the last place to look for someone interested in starting a charter school) and set an artificial cap on the number of charters that could operate in the state. Perhaps worst of all, the law was scheduled to sunset in 2011."
A lesson from my home state, Iowa, shows this effort is not as meaningful as it might appear.
Iowa has long had one of the weakest charter laws in the country. It technically has one, which is more than can be said for 11 remaining states, but it’s law limits charter authorizers to school districts themselves (often the last place to look for someone interested in starting a charter school) and set an artificial cap on the number of charters that could operate in the state. Perhaps worst of all, the law was scheduled to sunset in 2011."