Seattle Schools Community Forum

The Seattle Times reports more trouble for First Place , Washington State's first charter school.

UPDATE: Charter Commission rejects First Place correction plan A story in the Seattle Times describes some of the growing pains at First Place school, the first and only charter school up and running in Washington State. The principal and nearly half of the Board have left, there is no Special Education teacher, and they didn't do the required background checks on non-teacher personnel. There is reason to believe that they can get these things fixed - or at least fixed well enough to stay out of trouble. I think the takeaway lessons for the Charter Commission are: Confirm the political unity of the leadership. An institution doesn't lose half of its Board all at once, including the chair, unless there is some serious divide at the top. Pay a lot of attention to the school's plans and ability to provide Special Education services. I don't think the Charter Commission really appreciates what it takes to meet the federal requirements. On the good side, the c...

In breaking news from Politics Early and Often (in Illinois), the SEC has charged United Neighborhood Organization and its charter network with defrauding investors to the tune of $37.5M  b "making materially misleading statements" about contracts.  UNO leaders want to settle the case by "promising" to not use nepotism in their contracts and having federal oversight for a year.  But the SEC says the investigation is continuing.  The civil allegations from regulators with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission center on contracts the Chicago-based UNO gave to a window company owned by a brother of the group’s then-senior vice president, Miguel d’Escoto. SEC officials say the charter network should have told investors in a 2011 bond offering that it had hired Reflection Window Co., owned by Rodrigo d’Escoto, and that the contracts worth $11 million were awarded in violation of UNO’s grant agreement with the state. Interestingly (but not surprisingl...

The New York Times weighs in on the discussion going on during their mayoral race over charter schools.   They seem to lean towards them as good but they seem to have a negative for every positive.  The key seems to be oversight and accountability.  Not enough to make sure that the poor-performing ones are shut down quickly.  (And I recommend reading the comments - they do not lean towards charters.) Meanwhile, The Washington Post reports that Moody's says charter schools are hurting urban public districts.  Philadelphia is one of several urban public school districts where the rise of charter schools poses a threat to district finances, according to Moody’s, the credit rating agency. In 2003, the Philadelphia district spent 7.9 percent of its general fund on charters. By fiscal 2012, the schools ate up 23.7 percent of the fund. “While the vast majority of traditional public districts are managing through the rise of charter schools without a...