Charter Authorization Board failing Mississippi Children
Today’s announcement that the Mississippi Charter School Authorizer Board has rejected all but one application to open new Charter Schools in our state is deeply disappointing, said Douglas Carswell, President & CEO of the Mississippi Center for Public Policy.
“It is over a decade since the law was changed to allow Charter Schools in Mississippi,” Carswell said. “So far we have eight Charter Schools in the entire state. At this rate, it would take a century or so before we get a critical mass of new Charter Schools.”
“The Charter School Authorizer Board seems almost determined to reject new applications. Any application that is not deemed perfect gets a thumbs down.”
“The fact that not every application is deemed perfect is not an acceptable excuse. The job of the Authorizer Board should be to work with applicants to ensure they are acceptable.”
“Rejecting any application that is not 100 percent perfect is absurd. It means that children that might be able to go to a Charter School are forced to remain in their very far from perfect school board run school.”
“If the Authorizer Board is not up to approving new Charter Schools, responsibility to overseeing the process needs to be shared with other organizations and agencies that are.”
Read original article by clicking here.