The AFT New Jersey state federation believes that we have much work to do in order to improve education in our state and teachers must have a voice in that process. We believe charter schools, if done right, can be part of a reform strategy, and we are proud to represent teachers at charter schools. Just like traditional public schools, charter schools need strong and meaningful oversight and accountability mechanisms to ensure high performance. We have several concerns about this legislation.
New Authorizer
The bill creates a new entity to authorize charter schools in the state, the charter school authorizing board. The State Board of Education oversees the new authorizing board. It is unclear why a more fragmented authorizer system is necessary in the state. If anything, multiple authorizers drive down quality as nonprofits are allowed to forum shop. While a provision in the bill prevents charters from applying to both authorizers in the same year, it does not prevent a school from forum shopping year to year. We believe, for example, that the creation of multiple authorizers in Ohio has led to a substantial diminution in charter school standards there. In Illinois, the state’s new additional authorizer has already approved an application previously rejected by Chicago Public Schools. This has led legislation to be introduced there to eliminate this authorizer.
Senate Education Audio Archive (Oct. 16 session)>>
