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Celebrating Hispanic Heritage

by: Olivia Webb
Category: Charter News
Nov
06

As North Carolina’s Strategic Director for The LIBRE Initiative, Jeffrey Baldwin is passionate about advancing the principles of individual freedom, property rights, limited government and free markets for the US Hispanic community.  He is also a charter school advocate and Board member of Carter G. Woodson School in Winston Salem

From what Baldwin has seen and experienced in his work across the state, charter schools resonate with Hispanic families in significant ways.

“We are not used to having big schools, and with charter schools you will usually find that the student-to-teacher ratio is going to be smaller,” said Baldwin.  “There are other things, like uniforms, that are typical to many charter schools and also remind us of the schools in our home countries.”

“What you will find is that a lot of families understand the value of education,” said Baldwin.  “They will work really hard to learn and have a better life.”

That statement is personal for Baldwin, who at the age of 14 immigrated to the United States to escape the corruption, poverty and hopelessness of the Guatemalan Civil War and socialism.

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The Latest in Charter News Needing Corrections

by: Olivia Webb
Category: Charter News
Nov
06
See the Original Article Here and on our FB page!
While the author is correct in that NC charter school enrollment increased 19% during the pandemic and continues to rise, the author fails to discern that #charterschoolsarepublicschools. They are free, public and open to all. As tuition-free schools of choice, charters make up an essential part of NC’s school choice landscape, but they are not to be confused or categorized with private schools. To do so creates misinformation, which charters are accustomed to defending against.
In terms of oversight, NC charters are held to the same standards of accountability as traditional district schools, most notably when it comes to State test scores. The NC Office of Charter Schools - a state government entity - directly oversees all NC charter schools’ performance data, which is used to inform the NC Charter School Review Board in its duties of granting, denying, renewing or revoking charter agreements based on standardized metrics. There is also the fact that, as schools of choice, charters are held to even more stringent standards of accountability by parents, who vote with their feet.
Charter schools are legislatively granted more flexibility in areas such as curricula selection and teacher credentials, but at the end of the day they are expected to use that flexibility to innovate, not imitate; they must meet and/or exceed the acheivment standards set for all NC public schools. Failure to do so leads to reprimand and unfortunately, in persistent cases, closure. The fact that discipline or closure due to performance is a much more immediate threat to charter schools makes for higher stakes when it comes to each individual school’s accountability.

Charter Success Partners and the North Carolina Association for Public Charter Schools Partner to Launch Licensure Compliance Support

by: Olivia Webb
Category: Charter News
Oct
30

Charter Success Partners (CSP), a leading provider of charter school accounting and operational support services, and the North Carolina Association for Public Charter Schools (NCAPCS), the foremost state charter schools’ advocacy organization, have announced a partnership to help NC charter schools adhere to new state licensure law requirements.

The dashboard will provide charter schools with everything required to be in compliance with state licensure requirements, including those established by State Law 2023-106, which was passed by the North Carolina General Assembly in August 2023.

“The licensure dashboard is a valuable tool that will help charter schools stay on top of their compliance requirements,” said Zach Donahue, CFO of Charter Success Partners. “By providing schools with a dashboard that is easily embeddable on their website, parents and other interested parties will be able to access the information that they are entitled to and schools can be assured they are meeting all state requirements with virtually no disruption.”

The dashboard was developed with input from charter school professionals and attorneys. It includes a variety of features, such as:

  • ●  A personalized dashboard for each school that showcases their staff’s licensure information

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Esse Quam Videri

by: Olivia Webb
Category: Charter News
Oct
27

To Be Rather Than to Seem:  Gaining True Momentum in North Carolina by Rhonda Dillingham

Originally Published on CharterFolk: https://www.charterfolk.org/charterfolk-contributor-rhonda-dillingham-to-be-rather-than-to-seem-gaining-true-momentum-in-north-carolina/

North Carolina has entered a Golden Age of charter school legislation. Proposed statutes that would not have passed both Chambers of the Legislature just a few sessions ago have now been ratified by a Republican supermajority overriding the Democratic Governor’s vetoes. Two such statutes, HB 219 and HB 618, will have longstanding, positive repercussions for the charter school ecosystem in North Carolina. Our aim is to explore how our Charter School Association (CSA) played a major character in this political story and to quantify key progress indicators so that a similar approach might be systematically replicated in the future. Our state motto – Esse Quam Videri (To be rather than to seem) – rings true throughout the various stages of our approach.

1) Retain Ownership. 

House Bill 219 – Charter School Omnibus – was written with the founding principles of North Carolina charter schools in mind, some of which has been augmented and manipulated over the years. Its initial aims included overhauls to per-pupil local funding, enrollment growth, and local capital funding. House Bill 618 – Charter School Review Board – was built upon a major organizational change to the charter school approval, renewal, revocation, and termination processes. Our advocacy team was prepped and ready to help convey the value of these new bills to our stakeholders so that we could rapidly mobilize.

As soon as these bills were proposed we were briefed on their content, their sponsors, and the likelihood that they would pass. We immediately took an ownership stance. We translated the meaning of the bills and their potential impact to our Board and membership, preparing internal stakeholders to put their own advocacy hats on. Specific outreach was allocated to developing a rapport with primary sponsors and supporters of the bills in both the House and Senate, as well as all members of both Chambers’ committees on K-12 Education. 

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