Pennsylvania charter schools blast proposed new regulations

Lawmaker says ‘adversarial’ tone doesn’t help children

HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania charter school leaders on Wednesday ripped into proposed new regulations from the state, with one leader calling them “death by a thousand cuts” and several saying changes should come from the Legislature, not the Wolf administration.

Lawrence Jones Jr., CEO of Richard Allen Preparatory Charter School in Philadelphia, said the proposal would hurt families in his school’s impoverished neighborhood. Renee Gordon, chief administrative office at Charter School of Excellence in Erie, said the proposal “picks winners and losers” in public education.

They spoke at a Wednesday Senate Education Committee hearing on regulations proposed by the Department of Education.

There were 177 charter schools and cyber charter schools authorized in Pennsylvania last year. An estimated $3 billion publicly paid tuition flows to them annually through school districts.

Many at the hearing acknowledged a need for revised regulations. An outside attorney for the Pennsylvania School Boards Association, Allison Petersen, said more than 80% of the state’s 500 school districts favor charter school reform.

But Petersen said the regulatory process — changing charter school rules administratively, rather than via the Legislature — had limits.

The proposal, she said, is, “a substantial step forward but it is a first step.”

The Charter School Law was enacted in 1997 and, according to the state, has remained largely unchanged aside from 2001 amendments that allowed for cyber charters.

Democratic Sen. Tim Kearney of Delaware County said the charter operators’ criticisms made it sound like “you guys feel like you are under siege.”

The tone, Kearney said, was one of “a very adversarial relationship” between the state and the charters, and that would not help children.

Asked by Kearney to be specific about which parts of the proposal would damage charters, Jones described it as “death by a thousand cuts.”

Money talk

Much of the talk was about the flow of money to charters.

Among other things, the proposal specifies charter school board members fall under certain ethics guidelines, requires standardized audits, and sets out the process for state “redirection” of money to a charter school that has not been paid.

Gordon said thousands of payments meant for charter schools get caught in “a bureaucratic mess” involving attorneys. The proposal, she said, would make it harder for charter schools to prompt the Department of Education to make sure those payments reach the charters.

Roberto Datorre, an executive vice president at Commonwealth Charter Academy, said as many as one-third of school districts do not make timely payments to charter schools.

Beyond that, he said, the proposal does not address practical clarifications needed by charters.

For instance, he said, the state has failed to clarify applications of rules where charter students may take part in the authorizing school district’s sports or homecoming activities, if their charter does not have such an activity.

The lack of clarity, he said, has “a direct and negative impact” on students.

Eileen Cannistraci, CEO of Insight Cyber Charter School, said she opposed several aspects of the proposal and her feeling that it “bypasses the legislative process.”

Seeking clarity

Lancaster County Sen. Scott Martin, Republican committee chairperson, said a takeaway from the hearing was that the regulated schools wanted clarity.

He held up highlighted copies that appeared to show the text of the proposed regulations far surpassed the amount of text in the original. Martin said there was always a concern about “using regulation to avoid legislative intent.”

Many aspects of the proposal also are included in bills that are awaiting action in the Legislature. Sen. Lindsey Williams of Allegheny County, Democratic chairperson, said of the proposal, “This is not sweeping regulatory change.”

Julie Kane, policy director for the department, said the rulemaking process has taken more than two years.

The state received more than 1,500 comments from the public during a 30-day feedback period, she said. Another 30-day period for feedback from state lawmakers has just started.

The idea for the regulations, she said, is to clarify the charter school law so everyone will be clear on compliance.