Charter schools and traditional publics share educational territory.
So, like the farmers and the cowmen in Oklahoma, they should be friends.
The cause the schools have in common is adequate resources for the goal they share.
Rather than quarreling with each other like hungry puppies at an empty puppy bowl, charter schools and traditional publics should turn, not on each other, but to Harrisburg and DC to lobby together for the resources to ensure their common goal: excellence in education.
`Excellence in education is the ground on which both stand. Right now under consideration in the General Assembly – the very same charged to provide Pennsylvanians a “thorough and efficient” system of public education – is Senate Bill 1085. SB 1085 is just short of 100 pages of amendments to the Public School Code of 1949 regarding charter schools. Buried in the middle is a proposal that PDE create a standard application form for charter schools with 20 requirements. The tail ender, at number 20, is a mandate that the form “shall” ask the charter school applicant to “indicate whether or not the charter school entity will seek accreditation by a nationally recognized accreditation agency, including the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools or another regional institutional accrediting agency recognized by the United States Department of Education….”
Around the country, both charters and traditional publics are seeking accreditation, either voluntarily or by mandate.
A DC ordinance requires that “each public charter school shall seek, obtain, and maintain accreditation from at least one of 7 entities listed, including Middle States, and “any other accrediting body deemed appropriate by the eligible chartering authority that granted the charter….” DC Ordinance 920.
So what does accreditation mean?
According to the Western Association of Schools and Colleges Accrediting Commission for Schools (WASC), accreditation means certification to the public that the school is a trustworthy institution of learning, validates the integrity of a school’s programs to support student learning, and assures a school community that the school’s purposes are appropriate and being accomplished through a viable education program.
Sounds good for the charters, good for the traditional publics; good for the farmers, good for the cowmen, so, these folks who share territory should stick together, territory folks should all be pals.
CAVEAT EMPTOR. The Freundian Slip is a publication of the KingSpry Education Law Practice Group. It is intended to inform the reader about interesting, important or entertaining developments in our practice area. It is not intended as legal advice and reading The Slip does not make you our client, although we would be happy to have you as our client if the need arises. (c) COPYRIGHT John E. Freund, III, Esquire. 2014.
