A TALE OF 2 CHARTER SCHOOL GRADUATIONS
Two New Hampshire charter schools held June graduations—Franklin
Career Academy & North
Country Alternative. The two schools surely
differ in terms of support by local officials, but their missions and
accomplishments are similar.
Both schools provide a small school environment designed so students
can thrive. Each school's design included personalized academic and
career planning, and each school opened its doors to students who had
dropped out.. Each school found committed staff who brought the school's
vision to life. The
result—high student attendance, high parent
involvement, students achieving at accelerated rates, and high percentages
of students graduating from high school with post-graduate plans.
The graduation stories of these two new schools include student comments
that capture each school's importance.
FRANKLIN CHARTER SCHOOL HAS 1ST GRADUATION
“Hopefully, this will not be the last graduating class and FCA will find
funding to let other students realize their graduation dreams,”said valedictorian
Tasha Morin at Franklin
Career Academy’s graduation. “This school
is all about student and team success,”said board chairman Bill Grimm. “We
didn’t intend to make it easy,”said Grimm. “We only intended
to make your graduation a possibility.”Click here for complete
story! (For readers with older computers, copy and paste the following address
into the address bar: http://www.nhschoolreform.org/News%20Pages/Press%20Releases%20and%20Advisories/franklin%20charter%20school%20graduation.htm )
NORTH COUNTRY CHARTER SCHOOL HAS 1ST GRADUATION
Twenty-one (21) students graduated from North
Country Alternative Charter School on June 2nd. Another 46 students are expected to graduate
next year. In fact, there have been more than 150 calls inquiring about
admission for next September and this school, serving 26 or more school
districts, already has a waiting list.
“I’m so grateful to be able to speak here today because
there was a time where I thought I might not graduate,”said graduating
student Gaby Shepard. “The work <of
the charter school staff> this
year, has changed people’s lives and their futures.”Click
here for complete
story! (For older computers, copy and paste this
address above: http://www.nhschoolreform.org/News%20Pages/Press%20Releases%20and%20Advisories/north%20country%20graduation%20release.htm )
YEAR-END PROBLEMS ... UNSOLVED
New charter schools report successes in governance and financial management
as well as student achievement. Three significant problems are identified
for state-authorized schools, however:
1. MONEY PATH FOR STATE FUNDING TO REACH STUDENTS: State-authorized,
open enrollment schools serving regions or the state as a whole are
independent of local school districts and are accountable to the State
Board of Education, their authorizer, under provisions of RSA
194-B: 3-a, the 20-school pilot project.
While state funding for locally-authorized charter schools can reasonably
go to the local school districts because of a required contractual
relationship, state-authorized
charter schools have no such required contract with local school districts
and need to receive their funding directly from the state. State funding
is
the
only operational
funding guaranteed state-authorized schools for teacher salaries and
operational costs. Giving local school districts the ability
to refuse or challenge payment for some or all students puts charter
schools
and their students at risk. No school could exist if its payroll
could not be met. Independent schools in New Hampshire receive funds
directly
from the state. A direct pay from state to state-authorized independent
school is very much needed and is the only way the state can guarantee
all children receive their state funding..
A direct payment provision would generally free school districts
from showing charter school payments in district expense
budgets—an
item that can drive up district budgets.
2. AMOUNT OF FUNDING FOR STATE-AUTHORIZED SCHOOLS:
Next year’s education aid will apparently be a targeted or weighted
system, not a fixed per pupil allocation. Since charter public schools
are not municipalities, they
will have a per pupil allocation and $3500 per student is the amount proposed.
A specific amount is good, but the “fund” that augments the
state’s
base amount is unfunded for the next 2 years. Without these state fund
grants, $3500 will be the lowest state allocation for charter school students
nationwide.
Charter students will apparently also be ineligible for targeted aid that
other
NH public students will receive for economic disadvantage, special education,
and English as a Second Language. Most state laws treat charter school
students equitably in terms of public funding and targeted aid, avoiding
disparate treatment. Our June
2005 state-by-state comparison attempts to estimate state charter school
funding by percent of statewide average per pupil cost and dollar amounts
per student.
3. SPECIAL STUDENTS…CAN’T GET TO SPECIAL SCHOOLS
Parents of deaf children are finding that school districts will not agree to
student placement at the new bilingual charter school that teaches in American
Sign Language. Most likely the problem is money = tuition. Parents should
be able to access a choice school established by the state for parents. A
state allocation for this unique school has precedent in Catastrophic Aid
legislation and would make Laurent
Clerc Academy a free school for parents AND districts. Since district
catastrophic aid requests are based on annual student expenses, a free school
would reduce requests for state catastrophic aid for deaf and hard of hearing
students who attend.
WEBSITE UPDATES
Complete
Listing of Schools and Projects: Separate Links for Each School
How To
Start An Approved Charter School
Legislation
Page: Includes Membership of House & Senate Finance and Education
Committees
Technical
Assistance Page: Funding
Charter Schools May 2005
Sample
Charter School Finance Policies
For more information about NHCSR and school projects, please visit www.nhschoolreform.org.
If
you have any questions or comments on this newsletter or our site, please
feel free to contact us