In less than 20 years, public charter schools have grown from a novel educational experiment into an integral part of the education reform movement. While growth is impressive, effective policy that balances the demand for expansion and funding with the need for educational excellence is a constant challenge. With several Southern states rewriting their laws to foster charter school growth in recent years, a new report by the Southern Regional Education Board recommends policies that ensure academic quality and sufficient public funding.

 The report, released earlier this month, says states need to set clearer goals for charters in a number of different ways. According to the analysis, state laws and policies should: 

• Set firmer guidelines for charter school authorizers. Most authorizer's powers and oversight vary by state. By setting clear guideline for charter school performance measures and decisions about renewing, revoking, or establishing their charter schools, all would be held to the same high standard.
• Track the enrollment effects of all public schools. Little reliable data has been compiled on the effect of charter school enrollment on traditional district schools. Charter school authorizers should be required to track and analyze this data or engage academic researchers to do it to analyze the overall impact on the community.
• Require that charter contracts include "meaningful measures of academic performance." These would be revived periodically to gauge charter school progress and performance. This provision would allow for increased transparency and accountability to the public so that all charter schools remain academically sound.
• Allow the state to assist in oversight requirements. This provision would ensure that if smaller authorizers don't have the ability to fulfill various oversight duties, the state would step in and find ways to help authorizers comply. With many small non-profits running charter schools, several schools would currently be incapable of comprehensive analysis and reporting.

The report also mentions that charter schools do not enjoy the same levels of per-pupil funding as traditional district public school. In further recommendations, researchers say states should address funding disparities for charter schools by bringing their funding for students and facilities to the levels of traditional district public schools. While some Southern states cited in the report have taken action to help charters find facilities, states need to develop "appropriate and adequate funding streams" to reduce existing disparities.

Clearly, states must keep in mind the climate many charter schools face before saddling them with unnecessary regulatory burdens. As SREB points out, in order to develop a comprehensive system of accountability and analysis, charter schools must first be funded appropriately.

 What do you think about the report's findings?
Comment below.

Originally posted by Alix at AAE.

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