Texas Senate OKs reforms for charter schools

It's good to see that Texas appears to be on the verge of fixing its lame charter law, which let lots of lousy charter schools open -- and failed to shut them down -- resulting in bad outcomes for children and lots of black eyes for the charter movement in general.

Successful charter schools would be rewarded with financial incentives while those failing to meeting minimum academic and financial standards would be shut down – some as early as the end of this year – under a charter school reform bill passed unanimously by the Senate on Monday.

The legislation would tighten accountability requirements for the state's 190 charter school operators and for the first time offer facilities funding to schools that earn high performance ratings from the state...

While many charter schools are successfully educating their students, the program – which began in 1996 – has been plagued by low performance, mismanaged funds and fraudulent practices at many schools.

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Senate OKs reforms for charter schools

Legislature: Proposal would tighten standards, add rewards

09:47 AM CDT on Tuesday, April 17, 2007

By TERRENCE STUTZ / The Dallas Morning News
tstutz@dallasnews.com

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/texassouthwest/stories/DN-charter_17tex.ART.State.Edition1.42af337.html

AUSTIN – Successful charter schools would be rewarded with financial incentives while those failing to meeting minimum academic and financial standards would be shut down – some as early as the end of this year – under a charter school reform bill passed unanimously by the Senate on Monday.