Law gives charter schools more autonomy
Legislators, aiming to strengthen charter school laws this session, built upon the previous session's Charter School Omnibus Bill. The laws were cited by several education lawmakers as a priority for the session.
The new law explicitly states the Charter Schools Review Panel's responsibilities, including the ability to approve or deny charter applications, and to issue and revoke charters. It also increased funding for the public schools.
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Hawaii Island has 12 public charter schools, more than any other island in the state.
"It's a giant leap forward for charter schools," said Charter Schools Review Panel Chairwoman Nina Buchanan. "In Hawaii, it's an opportunity for us to strengthen education in the state. What we do has the potential to impact all schools. We'd like to see all kids in high-performing schools."
The original charter law was passed in around 1999, but the BOE with all its other duties "had never gotten around to writing administrative rules, and many other items relating to charters," said Jim Shon, former state legislator and former charter school executive director.
He said the panel is made up of individuals who are more knowledgeable, committed to, and interested in charters; and unlike the BOE, the panel can focus all its attention on making charters successful and holding them accountable.
The BOE has the power under the new law to decide appeals from denied charter school applicants, revoke a school's charter or deny the approval of an amendment to a charter school's detailed implementation plan.
BOE First Vice Chairman John Penebacker emphasized that the law does not remove the BOE completely from the picture. Under federal and state law, the board is still the oversight agency.
Board Chairwoman Karen Knudsen said she is waiting to see how the law will look in action.
"The board as a whole wishes the panel and charter schools success and best wishes," said BOE Chairwoman Karen Knudsen. "The board requested the (Attorney General's) office look into constitutional questions, but the governor signed the bill and ... (the questions) must have been addressed. We're now looking at how to disengage in this new role."
She said the board still has outstanding operational questions. However, it does have many other responsibilities and perhaps the law may work out well in terms of easing workload, she added.
Buchanan said the panel should not be judged until a year or two into the process.
"We have to have time to get up and running," she said. "We hope we will be given that time by the Legislature."
In response to concerns regarding the abrupt dismissal of Shon, former CSAO executive director, the new law also clarifies the responsibilities of the executive director seat.
Confusion and concern, both from the BOE's perspective and charter schools, surrounded the executive director's advocacy role. Included in the law's clarified list of roles is "providing advocacy, assistance, and support for the development, growth, progress, and success of charter schools and the charter system."
The law makes charter schools eligible for all federal financial support to the same extent as the Department of Education; and requires per-pupil funding for charter schools to equate "the total per-pupil cost based upon average enrollment in all regular education cost categories, ... excluding special education service ... as reported in the most recently approved executive budget recommendations for the department."
The use of recent state financial statements to calculate funding is a step forward for public charter schools, said Curtis Muraoka, West Hawaii Explorations Academy co-director.
"They used to use old budget numbers which meant that charters were never getting a fair budgetary jumping off point -- we always started out behind the eight ball," he said.
However, although this per-pupil funding appears straightforward, Muraoka said the term "per-pupil funding" is misleading.
"There is a finite pot of money -- about $50 million -- so it's not really an amount tagged on to each student. There is a big difference if you divide the money by 6,300 students or 7,000 students," Muraoka stated. "If more schools are added, the total gets divided by a bigger number of students. Also, this $50 million won't change for two years, but enrollments are going to increase for sure."
Lingle, in a written statement, said this new law is a step in the right direction in giving charter schools more autonomy to pursue innovative teaching methods and curricula, and will provide even more students an alternative learning environment to the traditional classroom setting.
"This law also supports long-fought efforts by my administration and many parents, educators and others in the community to provide charter schools with more equitable and adequate funding," she said.
Knudsen, Penebacker and Shon said they had no specific concerns about the wording of the law.
"As far as I can see, the bill should not be a problem, but it is the nature of laws that there can be multiple interpretations and you need to go back and fix it," said Shon. "... The short answer is that I think the bill is okay and should greatly improve the charter school system."
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