State Board of Education Tries to Derail Charter Schools

Education bureaucracy under fire for 11th-hour hit on charter school funding

The State Board of Education today created a firestorm by claiming for itself the power to withhold funding for new public charter schools, in apparent contravention of state law. All this is happening with 77,000+ student names on charter school waitlists around the state.

It started when the pro-school choice legislature enacted House Bill 618 a few weeks ago by overriding Gov. Roy Cooper’s veto.

The bill got rid of a duplicative approval process for new public charter schools and replaced it with a more sensible approach.

Previously, the Charter Schools Advisory Board (CSAB) would review applications for new charter schools. After that, the State Board of Education would conduct another review before the school earned final approval to open.

House Bill 618 streamlines that process. It does away with CSAB and creates a new Charter School Review Board, which has the power to review and approve new charter schools. The State Board of Education retains authority to decide appeals.

Apparently, the anti-school choice bureaucrats on the State Board of Education don’t like that the law gives first approval authority to the new Charter School Review Board.

So they did what bureaucrats do: insert themselves into the process to maintain their authority over other people’s kids, regardless of what state law says.

The State Board introduced a policy today – which will be voted on tomorrow – claiming for itself the power to deny funding to new public charter schools even if the Charter School Review Board approves the schools.

The 11th-hour tricks quickly drew flak from around the state:

• Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, who has a seat on the State Board, excoriated the body, saying their decision to wait so long before publicly revealing such a consequential proposal is “unprofessional and dishonest.”

• Treasurer Dale Folwell, who also sits on the State Board, pressed a vote to remove the policy from the agenda, which failed 7-2.

• Superintendent Catherine Truitt called the policy haphazard, saying, “We still don’t know the criteria that the Board could use to not provide funding…This policy is so vague that it could allow for this board to deny a charter without a reason.”

• Former state Senator Deanna Ballard, who chaired the Senate Education Committee, said, “This sneak attack on school choice uses a legal trick to threaten funding for new charter schools even as tens of thousands of children sit on charter school waitlists.”

• The N.C. Coalition for Charter Schools issued a statement saying, “The State Board of Education is wrong to play these bureaucratic power games when parents just want options in their public schooling."

They’re all right, of course. Tens of thousands of children want to attend a public charter school but there aren’t enough seats. That the State Board would prioritize its own little sphere of power ahead of the clear desires of parents all around North Carolina is outrageous.