NJ charter authorizer

An important fight in NJ to allow other charter school authorizers beyond the state DOE.   No surprise that ed warrior Carlos Lejnieks, chairman of the state charter school association, is leading the charge:

 

Carlos Lejnieks, the chairman of the New Jersey Charter School Association (NJCSA), said he is thrilled that the Education Committee will have the opportunity to hear from Richmond, who is recognized as a national expert on charter school authorizing.

"It's not just about creating new charter schools for the sake of charter schools," Lejnieks said. "We realize that that may have been the mantra of yesteryear. But now as we face the second wave of the charter movement, it's really about quality schools and increasing quality seats in those districts that need quality options in the public school sphere. It's not so much about quantity, it's about learning from the best practices and enabling those operators to grow, but check them when they don't do it well either."

Under current law, only the New Jersey Department of Education has the authority to authorize new charter schools.

"From state to state, the number and types of agencies that oversee charter schools varies considerably," Richmond said. "Of the 40 states and the District of Columbia that have charter school laws, almost all allow local school districts to authorize charter schools.  Most states also allow at least one other type of agency to authorize charter schools, including universities, state education agencies, intermediate educational service agencies and independent chartering boards.  Only five states, including New Jersey, limit authorizing to only the state education department."

Richmond said the presence of multiple authorizers can strengthen a state's charter school sector because a diversity of authorizers can promote professional practices among authorizers and provide checks and balances in charter approval, oversight and renewal decisions.