September 2015 - Grow Schools

Over the next few weeks, our team at Charter School Capital is following the California Charter School Association’s (CCSA) campaign to provide information that dispels the myths and misinformation about charter schools. And, let’s face it, there are a lot of myths out there about charter schools.
One of the biggest myths: charter schools aren’t public schools. Simply not true. Charter schools are:

Tuition-free and open to all students
Non-sectarian, and do not discriminate on any basis
Publicly funded by local, state, and federal tax dollars based on enrollment, like other public schools
Held accountable to state and federal academic standards

Along with being public schools, charter schools are free public schools of choice that:

Do not engage in selective admissions policies
Must accept all students, including students with disabilities and English Learners (ELs), regardless of previous academic performance
Use a process to randomly select students, oftentimes a lottery system, if there are more interested students than available seats

We hope you’ll join the team at Charter School Capital in supporting CCSA, California charter school advocates, and school choice advocates across the country and online via #chartertruth, to shed light on the truth about charters.
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Join us for our upcoming webinar – Building a Growth Strategy for Your Charter School on Tuesday, September 22 starting at 9:00 a.m. PST / 12:00 p.m. EST. This one hour webinar session will feature challenges schools face during various phases of growth from start-up, expansion through to a mature school as well as highlight best practices schools use to achieve success.

Register today!

Speaker: Stuart Ellis, President & CEO at Charter School Capital. Stuart is one of the founders of Charter School Capital, the nation’s leading provider of growth capital and facilities financing to charter schools nationwide. The organization has provided in excess of $850 million in support of more than 500 charter schools educating 500,000 students across the country.

What you’ll learn:

Best practices related to growth strategies for charter schools and charter school replication
Charter school funding options specific to your growth stage
Lessons learned from charter school leaders

Register now.

Last week the legislature adjourned for the year, completing the first year of the 2015-2016 legislative session. Friday night saw a flurry of legislative action, both successful and not successful, as both houses wrapped up their work. During the last hours of session a group of moderate Democrats emerged and frustrated their leadership and the administration by refusing to support several key bills. Some of these measures included a major climate change bill, raising the state’s smoking age and new restrictions on e-cigarettes. Additionally, two special sessions that were called by Governor Jerry Brown on transportation and health care stalled out and produced no agreements on either issue. There is some belief that the legislature will use the special session committees to craft some agreement over the legislative break and bring members back to town to vote on them but that seems like a long shot.
For charter schools specifically only one bill reached the Governor’s desk that is concerning, AB 787. The bill by Assemblyman Hernandez would prohibit for-profit companies from operating charter schools in any fashion. Though the bill is only a page long the term operate is not defined in the legislation and it leaves it up to interpretation. The education reform community has come out in strong opposition to the bill and waged a lobbying campaign against it on both the Senate and Assembly Floors. It passed both houses with one Democrat voting against it in the Senate and three Democrats abstaining while all of the Republicans opposed it. In the Assembly it passed with one Democrat voting against it and nine Democrats abstaining so it goes to the Governor without the support of the entire Democratic Caucus. The Governor has until October 11th to sign and veto the measure and we are urging him to veto it.
To see the language in AB 787 go to www.leginfo.ca.gov and put in the bill number.

Today the Seattle Times Editorial Board said, “The Washington Supreme Court should reconsider its ruling that the state’s charter school law is unconstitutional.”
It’s unfortunate that the state court’s ruling came days prior to the 2015-16 school year after 11 months with the court, impacting more than 1,200 students and their families. The growth of charter schools comes out of choice families are seeking for new and different ways of education for their children.
Below is the Seattle Times piece.

By Seattle Times editorial board, The Seattle Times

The state Supreme Court should heed requests to reconsider its ruling that Washington’s fledgling charter schools violate the state constitution.

The timing of the ruling – about 11 months after hearing arguments and after charter school classes commenced – was perplexing, but its repercussions are serious. More than 1,200 students are enrolled in the state’s nine charter schools, eight of which are starting their first year. In 2012, voters approved Initiative 1240 to authorize publicly funded charter schools that give higher priority to serving at-risk kids. Charters have greater flexibility to respond to students’ needs, something the traditional system does not provide or encourage enough of.

Read the full article.
Do you agree with the Seattle Times Editorial Board? What are your thoughts? Share your comments below.