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November 24, 2009
Nearing charter cap, DOE says it won’t approve any more schools
The city’s Department of Education has nearly hit the ceiling on the number of charter schools it is allowed to authorize and will not approve any more until the state cap is lifted.
On Monday, the DOE sent a list of 15 approved charter schools to the State Education Department for final authorization, leaving it and other school boards with only three new charters available.
State law limits the number of charter schools to 200 and there are currently 164 charters operating around the state. Of the 36 remaining new charters available, half may be authorized by the State University of New York. The other half may be authorized by the New York City Schools Chancellor or other local school boards and then approved by the state Board of Regents.
“From our perspective, we’ve approved 15 applications and submitted them to the state and if the cap is not lifted, we will not be submitting any more,” Ann Forte, a spokeswoman for the DOE, said.
This leaves three charters remaining for other local school boards or the State Education Department to approve and 18 charters left to be authorized by SUNY. In a report released earlier this week, the New York City Charter School Center estimated that about 40 charter school operators would compete for those remaining spots.
The question of whether to raise the cap on charter schools, or to remove it entirely, has been hotly debated in recent months. States with charter caps are at a disadvantage in the competition for the $4.3 billion Race to the Top grant funds, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan has said. Charter school advocates argue that the cap encourages school operators to open schools elsewhere.
State education commissioner David Steiner and Board of Regents Chancellor Merryl Tisch have argued that the cap prevents charter school authorizers from acting recklessly. Steiner and Tisch have said that a state-wide cap allows charters to expand at a measured pace and ensures that only the best schools will be opened.
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November 25th, 2009 8:55 am
[...] (Wicked Local Manchester) Minn. — A Mandarin grade school in Minneapolis (Time Magazine) N.Y. — Nearing charter cap, DOE says it won’t approve any more schools (Gotham Schools) N.C. — Payback time for public schools (Raleigh News Observer) Tenn. — No need [...]
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November 25th, 2009 11:27 am
To clarify the charter school numbers, of the 200 authorized in state law, 164 charters have been issued for new schools, NOT all of which are in operation. In school year 2009-10, 134 of those 164 are currently in opeation, plus six more charter schools which were converted from district schools and not counted under the 200 cap. Of the remaining 30 schools: 8 failed to have their charters renewed and were closed; three others never opened; and 19 are approved to open in the 2010-11 school year. As the article states, 34 charters remained to be awarded, with 18 each by the Regents and SUNY. The Regents at this moment have about 20 under consideration, including the five just transmitted from Chancellor Klein yesterday. He also stated he does not intend to approve any more until the cap is lifted by the state legislature. SUNY just received more than 20 letters or statements of intent from charter applicants preparing to submit new school proposals in January. New York is effectively capped out, and the state risks hundreds of millions in federal Race to the Top funding unless it removes this barrier in the next seven weeks (see http://www.nycsa.org/blog/). Whatever phobia remains from charter school opponents, it’s not worth risking this kind of competitive money that is desperately needed.
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November 25th, 2009 10:02 pm
sorry-36 charters remain to be awarded, and will be in by early to mid-2010, as I described.
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