Not all charter schools succeeding
The Obama administration has touted charter schools as a key education reform, based on the phenomenal success some have scored in educating hard-to-teach students.
But just like regular public schools, some charters — publicly funded schools that run independently of school boards and education codes — have washed up on the shoals amid rough seas.
Locally, MACSA Academia Calmecac in San Jose and MACSA El Portal Leadership Academy in Gilroy lost their charters last year over financial irregularities. In perhaps the most embarrassing example, Stanford New Schools in East Palo Alto, a venture of the vaunted university's school of education, two weeks ago was denied a renewal by the Ravenswood City School District.
Charter schools have steadily multiplied, with 809 this year in California, including 34 in Santa Clara County and 16 in San Mateo County.
But the same independence that fosters charter success also hinders outside intervention when schools are flailing.
Take the case of South Bay Preparatory in San Jose, which won a charter two years ago for grades six to nine. The school's opening was delayed a year because it couldn't find a facility. It finally opened last fall with 65 students instead of the 200 planned.
Then South Bay's sponsor, the Santa Clara County Office of Education, determined the converted church auditorium the school was using wasn't appropriate
