Birthplace of charter schools tightens controls and increases accountability of sponsors
One thing that remains murky to me is how accountable the state Charter Schools Commission – which a Fulton County judge recently ruled is constitutional – is for the schools that it approves over the objections of local boards of education. The commission is here in Atlanta, but it is approving schools across the state.
As the authorizer of the schools, how is the commission held accountable if one goes bad or if parents are unhappy and can’t go to the local school board to complain since the local folks had nothing to do with the school’s approval?
At a media briefing earlier this year, Charter Schools Commission member Jennifer Rippner surprised me when I asked whether parents of students in a commission charter school could ultimately turn to the charter commission with complaints that they felt were not being dealt with by the school itself or its board of directors.
Her answer was “yes,” raising the possibility of unhappy parents trying to track down the seven commissioners – most of whom have full-time, high-profile careers — and get them to delve into a problem their child was having in a school in south Georgia. Frankly, I just couldn’t see it happening.
Now comes an interesting development in Minnesota, the birthing ground of the charter school movement.
According to the Star Tribune: