Second statewide benefit

Once again neglecting the objections of advocates for local accountability, the state Board of Education last month approved the second statewide benefit charter, authorizing Aspire Public Schools to open two schools later this year. The action came almost exactly a year after the state board granted the first statewide benefit charter to High Tech High School, and it demonstrates the same disregard for the state Education Code, according to CSBA Senior Policy Analyst Stephanie Farland.

“They don’t seem to be following their own regulations,” Farland said after the 8-2 vote. “It seems to us that all they want to do is circumvent local approval.”

The state board is required to make a formal finding that a proposed charter “will provide instructional services of statewide benefit that cannot be provided by a charter school operating in only one school district or only in one county,” according to the staff report laying out the state Department of Education’s recommendation to approve the Aspire charter.

Charter schools receive public funds but are largely independent of most state regulations. Advocates say that frees them to pursue innovations that can lead to greater academic achievement—but it also complicates operations for the local school districts that must provide facilities and services for the charters, often at great cost.

Districts are limited in the grounds on which they can reject charter proposals that come before them and the conditions they can impose, but state approval of charters removes even those narrow opportunities to influence charter operations.

“It’s an erosion of public accountability for charter schools. There will be no local boards for parents to turn to,” Farland said. “And districts are still on the hook for facilities.”

Following the state board’s vote, Aspire plans to establish its first statewide benefit charter schools in Stockton and Los Angeles. It already operates 17 locally chartered operations in the state.

Another application for a statewide benefit charter, from Green Dot Public Schools, was pulled from the state board’s agenda.