Texas tried to incentivize school districts to work with charters. Districts are turning to local nonprofits instead.
Not many school districts are partnering with charter schools, in some cases because they know it wouldn't be politically palatable in their communities.
A 2017 law made some waves by encouraging traditional school districts to partner with charter schools as a way to create more high-quality, innovative schools.
The law incentivizes districts to hand over the management of certain schools to a partner organization in exchange for additional funding. Districts with chronically underperforming schools also get a temporary break from harsh state penalties under Senate Bill 1882.
Opponents argued the law was intended to facilitate the expansion of charter schools, which are publicly funded and privately managed, at the expense of traditional schools that compete with them for money and students.
But two years in, not many school districts are partnering with charter schools, in some cases because they know it’s not politically palatable in their communities. Instead, districts are using the law to partner with universities and private nonprofit organizations, sometimes ones they have created and staffed — allowing them to reap the monetary benefits of the law without giving up as much control over their schools.
For example, Waco ISD in Central Texas tapped Transformation Waco to overhaul five chronically low-performing schools instead of permanently closing them. District officials helped to create the nonprofit in 2018 for the sole purpose of forming a partnership; Transformation Waco's single employee is a former assistant superintendent for the school district. Everyone else working at the five schools is an employee of Waco ISD.
"Families wanted schools to stay open, but it was also very important for them that we maintain local control and, more than that, local relationships," said Kyle DeBeer, Waco ISD assistant superintendent of communications.
School districts are "responding to their own community needs," said Bibi Yasmin Katsev, executive director of the Texas District Charter Alliance, which advocates for district-charter partnerships. "This is the trend we wanted to see regardless of what CONTINUE READING: Texas schools more likely to work with nonprofits than charters | The Texas Tribune
