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Thursday, March 15, 2012

Blue Jersey:: Charter School Authorization Vote Today

Blue Jersey:: Charter School Authorization Vote Today:


Charter School Authorization Vote Today

Save Our Schools NJ reports that the full Assembly will vote today on two charter school bills:
-Assembly bill 1877 (bill A3852/S2243 last session), which would require local approval before the establishment of new charter schools, and-Assembly bill 2147 (bills A3356/S3005/S3001 last session), which would increase charter school educational and financial accountability and transparency and address the fact that NJ charter school students do not represent the demographics of their sending districts.
A2147 seems like a no-brainer: charters should be held to high standards of transparency and accountability. And since charters will be required to keep records for both student demographics and attrition, ACTING Commissioner Cerf will no longer be able to play the game of touting charter "successes" on one hand while claiming he can't produce reports on charters he promised long ago because he doesn't have the data.
In other words: when it comes to charters, Cerf will have to put up or shut up. Good.
A1877 is more problematic, but in the end, I support it. In general, I don't think the public should be making