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New Bill Rewrites PA Charter School Law

Senate Bill 904, and its companion bill in the House 1348, would repeal Pennsylvania's current charter school/cyber charter school law in its entirety, and replace it with new legislation that would allow for unchecked expansion of charter schools. The new legislation raises significant concerns because of its potentially negative impact on students, on accountability, and transparency.

There are serious questions about many aspects of the bill, including the removal of local control of charters and the redirection of millions of dollars in public funding away from neighborhood public schools.

The Law Center has published a summary and full analysis of the bill, along with suggested improvements: Charter School Reform Analysis.

Please review the Analysis and add your suggestions here for improving the legislation.

Tags: Pennsylvania, SB904, accountability, charter, school, transparency

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CharterSchoolBillFullAnaylsis.6.21.11.pdf, 436 KB

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Permalink Reply by Gamal D. Sherif on October 22, 2011 at 4:00pm

Thanks, Bill (& Ms. Lowman) for the synopsis.

A few recommendations:

Charge the State Commission with explicitly helping LEAs, parents and unions study, modify and/or adopt effective innovations within the charter school networks.
Modify the oversight of individual charters to require teacher representation. If the argument has been that teachers have had little influence over the direction of traditional public schools, then teachers should be able to effectively influence public education through charters, if necessary.
Allow PA charter employees to opt-in to (or cooperate with) the membership of the local union's collective-bargaining unit. This will help the employees within a charter ensure due process. As for "seniority" that is associated with unions, charters should be explicitly permitted to retain site-based hiring (a provision that already exists within traditional public schools). Charters should also be required to design their budgets that do not penalize (or discourage) experienced teacher applicants due to their higher salary expectations.
Allow/encourage local unions (or their partners) to open and supervise charter schools. If the argument is that the LEA and it's policy's hinder teacher effectiveness, then local unions should be able to manage charters effectively while maintaining union membership within the LEA.
Require that charter schools provide opportunities for teacher leadership through teacher-led professional development, peer evaluation, common planning time, and engagement-oriented (rather than compliance-oriented) administrative supervision.
The legislation should also be explicit about using "multiple measures of teachers' effectiveness" in determining faculty retention, teacher salaries, etc. Assessing teachers' effectiveness on high-stakes standardized tests is an incomplete strategy. This requirement is in alignment with position statements by the National Education Association, the American Federation of Teachers and the US Department of Education's Blueprint for Reform - Reauthorizing ESEA.