Charter schools hit 5,000 mark nationwide

That's according to the Center for Education Reform, a group that likes charter schools a whole bunch and keeps good tabs on the numbers.

According to its latest stats, released today, Florida has 413 charters and they enroll 131,183 students - which is about 5 percent of all students.

Florida ranks No. 3 in both number of charters and enrollment, CEP figures show.

Are Green Dot charter schools coming to Florida?

We're not sure. But company officials are meeting with Florida Education Commissioner Eric J. Smith in Orlando this week, and about 20 superintendents have been invited, including Julie Janssen in Pinellas and MaryEllen Elia in Hillsborough.

Green Dot has a reputation for turning around troubled schools in Los Angeles -- and for being friendly with teachers unions. An e-mail from Smith to superintendents said, "Through Race to the Top, there is potential to implement their turnaround model in some of Florida's lowest-performing public schools."

Representatives from the Florida Education Association will also be at the meeting.

*

Pinellas approves three charter school applications

The Pinellas County School Board approved three new charter school applications today, but not without some discussion about the need for all three. One application is for a second Mavericks high school. The other two are for new K-8 Plato Academy schools.

The board must still approve charters for all three before they can become reality. If they do, Mavericks will join a growing number of Pinellas charters that cater to at-risk high school students, including two Life Skills charter schools (one each in St. Petersburg and Clearwater) and the Florida High School for Accelerated Learning - Pinellas County Campus Inc.

"My concern is taxpayer dollars are going to these schools ... and I have yet to see the efficacy or any data that tells me how many students are graduating with diplomas," said board member Janet Clark. "I'm hesitant to keep approving these charters if we don't know that they're doing what they say they're doign."

Three charter school applications up for approval in Pinellas

Superintendent Julie Janssen is recommending that the Pinellas school board approve three new charter school applications at its meeting next week.

One is for a second Mavericks charter high school (the first one in Pinellas opened this fall in Largo). The other two are for new K-8 Plato Academy schools.

Pasco district officials recently recommended against a new Plato Academy in that district, citing concerns about the school’s budget, curriculum and student assessment plans.

Janssen was poised to recommend denial for another charter application – for the Richard Milburn Academy - but the item has been pulled so the applicant can revise, said board attorney Jim Robinson. A staff review of the application concluded there were deficiencies in many areas, including curriculum, governance and discipline policy.

A Richard Milburn Academy in Pasco closed in 2007 after being put on probation for concerns about finances and curriculum.

- Ron Matus and Donna Winchester, Times education reporters

Pasco poised to reject Plato Academy expansion

Hoping to extend its reach, the Plato Academycharter school in Clearwater applied this year to open another campus in Pasco County.

After reviewing the school's application, Pasco district officials are recommending against the plan.

"It would not meet the criteria for the state of Florida," Nancy Scowcroft, Pasco's charter school office director, said of the application. "That's the first thing we have to determine."

Scowcroft said the district had concerns about the school's budget, curriculum, student assessment plans and other aspects of its education program. She suggested those must be fixed, and perhaps Plato Academy might apply again next year.

Plato Academy officials will have the opportunity to state their case to the School Board next week. 

Pinellas approves another charter school for at-risk students

Charter schools in Pinellas are increasingly taking on the district's most at-risk high school students.

Without discussion, the Pinellas school board voted unanimously today to approve the charter for the Florida High School for Accelerated Learning - Pinellas County Campus Inc.

The school is slated to open in Kenneth City next fall, and will serve at-risk students in grades 7-12. That makes it the fourth charter school to serve struggling high school students in Pinellas, with applications for at least two more headed for a board vote next month.

Pasco to Imagine charter school: Get us your budget, or else

Two weeks ago, the Pasco school district fired off a letter to the Imagine School at Land O'Lakes advising the charter school operators that their financial reports are overdue, and to submit them quickly.

So far, the response has not satisfied the district.

Assistant superintendent Renalia DuBose told the School Board this morning that the charter school has not yet delivered its 2009-10 budget or capital funds plans, even as Imagine conducts classes for close to 500 children. That's counter to the school's contract with the board, and it could lead to action up to closure, board attorney Dennis Alfonso advised.

Board members were displeased.

"We're very much in favor of our charter schools," board member Kathryn Starkey said, "but they do need to comply" with the rules.

*

Survey: 'Obama effect' sways public on charters, vouchers, teacher merit pay

Forget the facts. What does Obama think? People are much more supportive of charter schools and performance pay for teachers when they hear President Obama supports those policies, according to the latest survey from Education Next and the Program on Education Policy and Governance at Harvard.

Tampa Bay districts get a flurry of charter school applications

Pinellas received eight applications for new charter schools by yesterday's deadline. Hillsborough got 20. Pasco and Hernando got one each.

In Pinellas, three applications propose new schools with instruction in English and Greek. Three are aimed at at-risk students and/or recent dropouts, including a new application from Mavericks, the charter chain that is setting up a school in Largo. One offers a college prep curriculum "developing students' abilities in the Spanish language." And one aims to replicate the Alfred Adler Elementary charter school in St. Petersburg, which is modeled on the theories of pyschologist Alfred Adler.

In Hernando, the one application is for Nature Coast Charter School, proposed by a company called Green Door Education Services.

In Pasco, the Pinellas-based Plato Academy has applied to open a K-8 school. It would be the county's second Greek-themed charter school if approved.

Will Pinellas' newest high school live up to its promise?

Say this for Mark Thimmig: He’s not afraid to make big promises.

Thimmig is president/CEO of the Mavericks charter school chain, which got permission from the Pinellas school board to open a high school this fall for struggling students and recent dropouts. He says the school, in Largo, is a “game changer” that will boost the district’s graduation rates. It can take up to 400 students.

“You can pour all the money you want into the propeller engine, but it’s never going to get you to the moon,” he told the Gradebook recently. “We got to put a stop to the idea that the customer is the problem, the student is the problem. It’s the process that’s the problem.”

Principal says Imagine charter school's F grade not fair

Are some F grades more defensible than others? The state’s grading formula excluded many of the highest performing students at Imagine charter school in St. Petersburg because they were home schooled or in private schools last year, skewing the results, principal Dawn Wilson tells the Gradebook. According to Wilson, 46 of 102 third-, fourth- and fifth-graders tested on the FCAT at the first-year school did not have matching scores from last year.

“It’s not particularly fair,” Wilson said. “I know that sounds childish … (but) the state grading system is inherently flawed.”

Imagine and Gibbs High were Pinellas County’s only F schools this year.

Two Hillsborough charter schools are shut down

TAMPA -- By a unanimous vote today, the Hillsborough County School Board voted to terminate the contracts of Anderson Elementary Academy and the Carl Sagan Academy.

Gov. Crist sets new rules for Florida charter schools into law

The second time proved a charm for Sen. Don Gaetz's effort to put more controls onto Florida's charter schools (many of which have closed for mismanagement, poor performance, money woes or worse).

This week, Gov. Charlie Crist signed into law SB 278, placing stiffer rules on the management of the schools that run with public funds but outside the full control of the public school system. A year ago, a similar Senate bill ran into static in the House during a tiff over various pieces of education legislation.

The new rules require charter operators to reveal which of their relatives work for the school. It makes charter schools subject to the class-size reduction amendment. It has charters make monthly financial reports to their sponsors, and sets forth clear methods for closing schools that face deteriorating finances.

Sponsors also may close the charters down if they fail to improve academic performance after giving the school warning and a year to take corrective action.

Crist also signed into law a bill that makes students responsible for the full cost of lost school books.

Both rules take effect next week.

- Jeff Solochek

Charter school supporters scrutinize Stanford report

Last week’s Stanford University report dinging charter school performance has a major-league technical flaw, says the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools. The “data actually include strongly positive results for charter schools that contradict the report’s summary and the negative slant of its press coverage,” alliance president and CEO Nelson Smith writes in this memo sent out Friday.

State Rep. John Legg, R-Port Richey, also offers an explanation for the report’s conclusions in this letter to the St. Petersburg Times.

Who's right about Florida charter schools?

As the St. Petersburg Times reported this morning, Stanford researchers say Florida charter school students aren’t learning as much as their traditional public school peers. But the Florida Department of Education says not so fast. In terms of proficiency, the DOE concludes in this recent analysis, Florida charter school students are performing better than their peers.

Given the time frame used by the Stanford researchers, “it is not surprising to see the gap that existed between charter and traditional public schools,” DOE spokeswoman Kelsey Lehtomaa told The Gradebook via email. “However, as the data in Florida from the 2007-08 school years clearly shows, this gap has been eliminated.”

Lehtomaa goes on to offer three reasons why Florida charter kids are now scoring higher.

Stanford’s response? Apples and oranges, lead researcher Margaret Raymond says in this email.

Students in Florida charter schools lagging

On average, students in charter schools lag behind their peers in traditional public schools, and the black and Hispanic students among them perform even worse, according to a national report released today.

The findings were even harsher for Florida.

Many groups of charter students in Florida, a national leader in the charter school movement, perform "significantly worse" than their peers in other public schools, says the study by Stanford University's Center for Research on Education Outcomes (CREDO), an outfit many regard as pro-charter. Among them: Black students. Students scoring in the bottom 10 percent of their cohort. And students in the top 10 percent of their cohort.

"Despite promising results in a number of states and within certain subgroups, the overall findings of this report indicate a disturbing – and far-reaching – subset of poorly performing charter schools," the report says. "If the charter school movement is to flourish, or indeed to deliver on promises made by proponents, a deliberate and sustained effort to increase the proportion of high quality schools is essential."

Pinellas County School Board limits Plato Academy extension to three years

In a rare move, the Pinellas County School Board declined a request from Plato Academy charter school to extend its charter another five years. The board agreed instead to give the Greek immersion school in Clearwater a three-year renewal.

Questions arose at Tuesday’s School Board meeting regarding Plato’s fifth-grade FCAT scores, and the fact that the school did not appear to have a school improvement plan in place to correct the deficit.

“These are taxpayer dollars going to a public school,” said board member Janet Clark. “I would think with a charter school with a small number of students, we should be seeing more achievement here.”

Board member Carol Cook suggested that the board grant a 3-year renewal instead. The board approved that extension 7-0.

Plato, which opened in Pinellas in 2004, originally had asked for a 15-year renewal. District officials took that request off the table several weeks ago.

Donna Winchester, Pinellas education reporter

*

Three appointed to charter school panel

Gov. Crist has reappointed three members of the state's Charter School Review Panel. They are:

• Kimberly “Kym” Elder, 49, of Nokomis, executive director and founder of Island Village Montessori Charter School, reappointed for a term beginning April 20, 2009, and ending April 11, 2010.
• Sherry A. Hage, 41, of Fort Lauderdale, vice president of education for Charter Schools USA, reappointed for a term beginning April 20, 2009, and ending April 11, 2010.
• Dr. Tim S. Kitts, 53, of Lynn Haven, principal of Bay Haven Charter Academy, reappointed for a term beginning April 20, 2009, and ending April 11, 2010. Kitts will serve as chair of the Charter School Review Panel.

*

Slain girl to be honored with library memorial

Paris Whitehead-Hamilton, the 8-year-old girl who died in the crossfire of a neighborhood feud, will be honored at her school with a memorial that highlights her love of reading.

Imagine Charter School in St. Petersburg is establishing “Paris’ Corner” in the library. It will be “a quiet and comfortable place for the students to follow Paris’ example and fall in love with books,” principal Dawn Wilson wrote in a letter being sent home to parents today.

Paris “was an avid reader in our second grade class,” the letter says. “Since the Read-A-Thon began she had read well over 1,000 pages, more than most of her classmates. She would share the stories with her teachers, showing how well she understood all that she had read. This love for reading is one of the ways that we, as a school community, are choosing to remember Paris.”

*

Senate bill would have charter schools follow class-size rules

A bill that begins making its way through the Florida Senate this afternoon would reverse an administrative law judge's recent ruling that the class-size amendment doesn't apply to charter schools.

SB 278 would explicitly require charters to follow the class-size rules and mandate that they receive funding only for the maximum number of students permitted under the guidelines. The legislation also revives many of the accountability measures for charter schools that the Senate attempted to adopt last year.

That effort got sidetracked in a train wreck of education bills, as House and Senate leaders failed to agree on several measures and ultimately killed them all.

This year's attempt to rein in charter schools might face a similar fate.

Class size reduction: not for Florida charter schools

While pondering how to cope with the expense of the state's class size mandates, perhaps Florida's public education leaders might want to chew on this: A state hearing officer has ruled that the 2002 class size amendment does not apply to charter schools.

In a nutshell, the Renaissance Charter School Inc. and the Lee Charter Foundation Inc. -- both subsets of Charter Schools USA -- complained to the state last March that the class size amendment was hurting their operations.

Yet the Florida Department of Education hasn't adopted any rules for charter schools to follow if they haven't met the amendment's requirements. So charter schools shouldn't have to comply. Right?

Right, says administrative law judge Suzanne Hood.

Long live the Florida Schools of Excellence Commission

Barely gone and buried by the Florida Department of Education, the now unconstitutional Florida Schools of Excellence Commission has a toehold for a new lease on life.

Sen. Stephen Wise of Jacksonville has filed a bill that would give the commission, which Gov. Crist let fade away without an appeal, new powers as an agency with the primary purpose of developing remedial charter schools as "an alternative to a public school found by the state to be chronically failing or below average."

One of the FSE's initial sponsors, Rep. John Legg of New Port Richey, told the Gradebook he had heard rumblings about changing the commission's reason for being, though he wasn't privy to the details. He remained noncommital about his support.

"The concept sounds good," said Legg, chairman of the House Pre-K-12 Education Policy Committee. "We've got to work out the details."

Some veteran Legislature watchers sounded jaded about the proposal. They suggested that school districts don't need another state agency to deal with charters, and guessed it had more to do with protecting the financial interests of the commission's status quo. The FSE spent nearly $500,000 in three years without ever seeing a sponsored charter open.

A plug for nature-based learning

It’s not the cover of Rolling Stone. But if you’re a school, it’s as good as it gets. Hillsborough’s Learning Gate Community School, a charter school in Lutz, was on the cover of Education Week recently, anchoring this story about nature-based learning. Here’s a taste:

“Students here are accustomed to digging in the dirt for a science experiment, or climbing trees to set the mood for a wring assignment. Piles of dead and decaying leaves are weighed for math lessons. And organisms found in indoor terraniums are compared with those found lakeside in their natural habitat.”

The St. Petersburg Times gave some ink to Learning Gate in this 2007 story about charter schools. Did we mention the school barely mentions the FCAT? Dare we ask: Why can’t more schools do this?

It cost how much to run the Florida Schools of Excellence?

Nearly half a million dollars. That's how much.

Since 2006, the Florida Schools of Excellence Commission has had offices and staff, preparing itself for the eventuality that it would authorize and oversee charter schools that didn't want to ask local districts for sponsorship.

It has approved some charters along the way, but not one has opened. And with last week's ruling that the FSE is unconstitutional, it appears likely that none ever will. Commission executive director Frank Atkisson and his board are to meet this morning to discuss what to do next.

Some of you readers have asked how much this endeavor has cost Florida. Here's the breakdown for fiscal years 2006-07 and 2007-08, as provided by the Department of Education:

Salaries - $290,447
Benefits - $35,604
Expenses - $97,888
Travel - $34,759
Indirect Cost - $27,755
Capital Outlay - $1,912
TOTAL - $488,396

Want to hear what the commission might have in store? Today's meeting is a conference call. Call 1-888-808-6959. Access Code: 2450861.

*

Charter challenge coming

As we told you yesterday, an appellate court has found the Florida Schools of Excellence Commission unconstitutional.

That might not be the last word on the matter, though.

Even as FSE executive director Frank Atkisson spoke of new directions for the agency, Center for Education Reform president Jeanne Allen accused the court of issuing a political opinion and promised further appeal.

In a news release, Allen -- well known as a leading charter school advocate in Washington, D.C. -- called the ruling "dead wrong," suggesting that special-interest groups were behind the decision.

Which special-interest groups? Florida's public school districts, of course.

In Allen's own words: "School districts in Florida do not have exclusive franchise over schools they do not create. The court erred in its opinion and we will work to see that this ruling is challenged."

Stay tuned.

*

Court rules against Florida Schools of Excellence

Local school districts no longer have to worry about charter school applicants doing an end run to the state to win the right to operate.

Florida's First District Court of Appeals found the Florida Schools of Excellence Commission "facially unconstitutional" in a series of opinions issued this morning. (See the main one, Duval County School Board v. State Board of Education.)

The law establishing the FSE is in fatal conflict with Article IX of the Florida Constitution, the court states, in that it creates a "parallel system of free public education escaping the operation and control of local elected school boards." Several school districts, including Pinellas, Pasco and Hernando, challenged the law.

The court cites Bush vs. Holmes, which struck down the state's voucher system, as precedent. It continued:

"The further arguments that the statute authorizes the Department of Education to permit the districts to retain exclusive control over the chartering of schools and permits districts to retain control over charter schools sponsored by district boards provide no salvation as the statute also provides the vehicles to remove that authority, relegating local boards to essentially ministerial functions."

FSE executive director Frank Atkisson told the Gradebook that the decision was "not unexpected." Atkisson said if the group is allowed to continue, he intends to take the commission in a new direction.

Florida charters, ghost students

Charter schools in Florida that aim to rescue potential dropouts are raking in millions of state dollars for students who aren't showing up, according to this investigation by the Scripps Howard News Service. In 2006-07, such charters collected at least $25 million despite a daily average of 5,125 missing students, the story says. (The story does not say what percentage that is.)

The story emphasizes for-profit charters, and cites the Richard Milburn Academy schools in Hillsborough and Pasco, both of which were shut down by their districts. Sixty percent of students at the Hillsborough academy missed at least 2 days in 2004-05, giving the school the sixth highest truancy rate in Florida. (You can read more about those academy schools in this St. Pete Times story.)

Another charter chain with high rates of absenteeism, White Hat Management, which runs 11 Life Skills Center schools in Florida, offered this response:

"It is a constant challenge to keep our students in school – many of them have lost the discipline of daily attendance and almost all of them have other responsibilities such as jobs and families that make it harder for them to balance their schedules. There is absenteeism at Life Skills Centers as there is at public schools. It is surprising that it isn't higher."

The news service found the same issues in other states. For the national version of the story, click here.

- Ron Matus, state education reporter

Yes for Hillsborough, no for Pinellas

When the State Board of Education meets in Tampa Tuesday, it will consider specific requests from two of our local districts.

It's got likely good news for one, bad news for the other.

For the past eight years, Hillsborough has held what's known as "charter district" status. That means it can get around some of the bureaucracy that most other Florida school districts must endure, much like charter schools can avoid a lot of the red tape that binds traditional public schools.

Hillsborough has asked to extend its charter through July 2010. The DOE has recommended approval. (This would also affect Palm Beach, Volusia and Orange counties.)

For the past two years, Pinellas - along with pretty much every other district - has sought to retain exclusive control over the authorization of charter schools within its boundaries. This is a hot-button political and constitutional issue that has prompted a lawsuit by about a dozen districts.

Once again, the DOE is recommending against exclusivity for Pinellas, saying it hasn't met the standard. (This would also affect Charlotte, Dade, Lake, Nassau, Orange, Osceola, Palm Beach, Putnam, St. Johns and St. Lucie counties.)

The state board meets at 8:30 a.m. Tuesday at the Tampa Airport Marriott.

*

Hernando urges denial of charter school bid

BROOKSVILLE -- For the second time, a Hernando County Schools committee has recommended denying a Fort Lauderdale company's bid to open a 350-student charter school for high school dropouts.

The district said Mavericks in Education had failed to show that its local governing board would control the school's curriculum and finances. It said the company overstated the school's potential enrollment and revenues, and had double-counted the value of $250,000 in state grants.

All of those are fatal flaws under the state law governing public charter schools, said David Schoelles, a curriculum specialist and chairman of the review committee.

Superintendent Wayne Alexander appears to have run out of patience. He said he would back the committee's call for a denial of the application.

New overseers for charter school review

The Florida Charter School Review Panel, established by the Legislature to advise policy makers on charter school issues and also to hear challenges to school districts' charter decisions, will have two new members.

Gov. Charlie Crist announced his appointment of:

• Dr. Tim S. Kitts, 52, of Lynn Haven, principal of Bay Haven Charter Academy, succeeding Fernando Zulueta, appointed for a term beginning October 6, 2008, and ending April 11, 2009. Kitts will serve as Chair of the Charter School Review Panel.
• Kimberly "Kym" Elder, 48, of Nokomis, executive director and founder of Island Village Montessori Charter School, succeeding Mark Griffin, appointed for a term beginning October 6, 2008, and ending April 11, 2009.

Crist also reappointed Sherry A. Hage, 41, of Fort Lauderdale, vice president of education for Charter Schools USA.

KIPP finally coming to Florida

The nation's most talked-about charter chain is going to set up shop in Jacksonville. And plenty of folks will be looking to see whether it can succeed as well in Florida as it apparently has everywhere else.

KIPP, of course, has gotten tons of good pub with a recipe built around high expectations, longer hours and especially dedicated teachers. On the other hand, did y'all see this recent Education Week story about attrition at KIPP schools in San Francisco?

- Ron Matus, state education reporter

*

A weekend interview with ...

... Dennis and Eileen Bakke, founders of Imagine Schools, a Virginia-based charter school firm that has been expanding its presence in Florida. Imagine opened new schools in Pinellas, Pasco and about a dozen other counties this year, and recently won approval to expand its St. Petersburg campus into the middle grades. The Bakkes spoke with reporter Jeff Solochek about their plans and philosophy.

I notice that you're opening quite a number of schools here in Florida, and I was just interested in knowing why Florida is such a vibrant market for you.

Dennis Bakke: I think the opportunities, it's probably our largest state. We have set a goal just to do as many schools as we can do. We want to help as many parents to educate their children as we can. So we go wherever we think we can be welcomed into the community to put a school in. We're in 15 states or so, and Florida, Arizona, Ohio and some of these other places are just really attractive. It is possible to do schools, these are communities that more or less support competition and charter schools, schools of choice. That's an important reason to come to a place like Florida. ...

Do you find that the local school districts can be resistant or reluctant to allow you to open new schools?

DB: Yes. I think most of the time. And it's natural, right? I mean, it's like Burger King going to McDonald's and asking them whether they could put a store right next to the McDonald's store and, by the way, it will be good for you. It's essentially what is being asked by these people. It's not fair ... to have it done that way. There should be a system by which you can get the charters through the state or some other authorizers like they do in other states. It is a problem. If I was a school district, I probably would fight it too, although it is very good for them. That is, competition is what makes everybody better. ... Most monopoly school districts do not have any competition, and it makes it hard for them to be as good as they could be. When we come along, we actually do this friendly competition, in effect, for parents. And either the school district is going to get better in order to compete with us, or the kids will all end up with us.

I notice you have a number of applications in to the state agency, the Florida Schools of Excellence Commission. Is that to get around the reluctance from the school districts that you're facing?

Study: Florida charters have better grad rates

Florida high school students attending charter schools are more likely to earn diplomas and go to college, according to this recent study, published as a peer-reviewed working paper by RAND Education. Fifty-seven percent of students attending a charter in ninth grade went to college within five years, compared to 40 percent of students in traditional public schools, the study found.

The authors, including FSU economics professor Tim Sass (shown above), found the same thing in Chicago charter schools. They said the reasons are unclear, but offered this tentative conclusion:

"Our findings are consistent with recent work on the efficacy of Catholic schools, which finds large positive effects of Catholic high school attendance on educational attainment. While just a first step, the results presented here and in the Catholic school literature suggest that expanding school choice at the high school level may be a part of an effective policy to reduce high school dropout rates and to promote college attendance."

Ron Matus, State Education Reporter

*

Imagine Schools founder wants to keep growing in Florida

With 18 charter schools in Florida, Virginia-based Imagine Schools stands as one of the state's largest charter operators. Founder Dennis Bakke, in Tallahassee last week for the ribbon cutting, tells the Gradebook he'd like to expand even more in the state.

"We have set a goal just to do as many schools as we can do," Bakke said. "We want to help as many parents to educate their children as we can. So we go wherever we think we can be welcomed into the community to put a school in."

Already, Imagine has submitted 18 new applications to the Florida Schools of Excellence Commission. Bakke said the group has turned to this state agency because it has encountered resistance among some local school boards.

"And it's natural, right?" he observed. "I mean, it's like Burger King going to McDonald's and asking them whether they could put a store right next to the McDonald's store and, by the way, it will be good for you. It's essentially what is being asked by these people. It's not fair ... to have it done that way."

For more of our interview with Dennis Bakke, visit the Gradebook on Saturday for our weekend interview.

Seeking another path to charter schools

Even as a case challenging its existence winds its way through court, the Florida Schools of Excellence Commission continues to see the list of applicants who want to start a charter school without school district involvement grow.

This year, the commission has received 54 applications for permission to operate schools. The agency has told 15 of them it won't review their requests because the counties where they want to open have since received exclusive control over charters.

Of those that remain, several come from organizations, rather than being mom and pop operations. Leading the way is Imagine Schools, which opened nearly a dozen charters this year and apparently aims to open many more. Also on the list is the Ben Gamla school, a Jewish school that ran into some roadblocks when debuting in Broward. (See the full list here.)

Hernando raps charter school applicant

BROOKSVILLE -- A new charter school applicant faces two choices from the Hernando County School Board: revise its application by Oct. 1 or go home.

Earlier this summer the Fort Lauderdale-based Mavericks in Education applied to open a 400-student school exclusively for high school dropouts or at-risk students. Company officials say they've filed similar applications in nine other counties, including Pasco, Pinellas and Hillsborough.

Their plan contains plenty of flash: a year-round schedule, video games in the student lounge, and marketing help from pro basketball star Dwyane Wade.

But a Hernando staff committee has found "multiple deficiencies" in the for-profit company's proposed budget, as well as its plans for teaching special-needs students and struggling readers.

Are they really public schools?

They get the same amount of funding per student as Florida's traditional schools. They must meet the state's class-size requirements. Their students have to pass the FCAT.

So Florida's charter schools meet the definition of public. Right?

Well, a lawyer for the Renaissance Charter School in Miami isn't so sure. Stephanie D. Alexander has filed a petition with the Department of Community Affairs asking for a ruling as to whether charter schools are indeed public when it comes to setting a county's school concurrency ordinances. (See the law in question here, particularly sections 13(a) and (b).)

The decision could be an interesting one. School districts have struggled to come to terms with counties as they seek to define terms for whether housing development may move forward based on available school seats. Should a charter school's seats count?

The case has been numbered DCA08-DEC-218. Stay tuned.

A weekend interview with ...

... Mark Thimmig, CEO of Mavericks in Education, a new charter school firm that's hoping to launch 10 new schools throughout Florida in areas with high levels of dropouts. Thimmig, a former vice president of AutoNation who also ran White Hat Ventures, one of the nation's largest school management firms, spoke with reporter Jeff Solochek about his company's plans.

First, tell me a little bit about your company and what you want to do.

The purpose of our applications is to work with local governance boards through nonprofit organizations to establish schools that are specifically designed, developed, research-based to serve a student population that is not succeeding in a traditional educational environment. In particular, our mission is to retrieve students who have dropped out of schools. One of the things that makes us unique as a public charter school is that, unlike many charter schools who are in competition with the traditional school districts, we are focused on bringing students back into the educational system that have left. That's our first and foremost mission, and that makes us quite unique. In the current situation when districts are under pressure with budgets, we are a charter application that I think can get and should get consideration given that we're not competing for those precious dollars that are there for K-8 students or more traditional high school students.

How did you decide on Florida for your venture?

Well, we live here. And Florida is one of the largest dropout epidemic states in the United States. It is projected and published that there are over 100,000 dropouts in our state each year. So we have an epidemic here. And it has not gotten any better in the major school districts throughout the state. They struggle with this problem. We recognize that our public school districts are strapped with challenges and responsibilities, and they need organizations that can come in and without draining taxpayer dollars ... (provide) the kind of very specialized educational program they need for this student population that is catastrophic to our communities.

Statistically, we know that 70-85 percent of all state and federal prison inmates do not have a high school diploma. We know that without a high school diploma, that people are dependent at a far greater level on expensive and valuable social services. So we know that people will turn to things that are detrimental to society. We know they need to survive. And that's expensive for our communities if they cannot work and be part of the productive workforce within our communities. And we also know, frankly, that they cannot have an active participation in our vital democracy if they can't read and write, can't fill out a voter card or can't make analytical and constructive decisions about whether it's local, state or federal candidates. How are we going to hear their voice in our democracy? ... We really see this as a cause.

How do you get the students to buy into your cause?

Exclusivity granted

In the fight for authority over charter schools within their geographic boundaries, the Hillsborough and Hernando school districts have stood among the most vocal critics of the Florida Schools of Excellence Commission.

Now they're poised to see the FSE marginalized within their counties.

On the recommendation of a hearing officer, education commissioner Eric J. Smith is recommending that Hillsborough and Hernando - along with Broward, Polk and Sarasota - be given exclusive charter-granting authority. Eleven other districts, including Pinellas, did not receive enough points after informal hearings to win the commissioner's blessing.

See the revised point estimates here.

Pasco schools, along with 15 others that were initially rejected, did not ask for hearings. Many of them are involved in a court challenge to the constitutionality of the FSE, figuring the ultimate ruling will render the entire debate moot (see the court documents here).

Oral arguments in the case are expected as early as September.

CEP gets axed again

Florida hasn’t been so sunny lately for Community Education Partners. A few months ago, the Pinellas County School Board ended its contract with the Nashville-based company, which had been running the Oak Park alternative school in Pinellas Park. Now Orange County is ending its contract with CEP, too.

CEP runs a handful of schools around the country for kids with academic and behavior problems. In both Orange and Pinellas, officials cited budget concerns for ending their contracts with the company, not effectiveness. But how much progress was CEP making?

An evaluation of Oak Park, released in summer 2007 by the University of South Florida’s Center for Research, Evaluation, Assessment and Measurement, found “no discernable evidence” that students there were doing better than they had been before to coming to the school, or better than students with similar achievement levels. But the researchers also made it clear they were working with limited data. The school opened in 2005.

In Orange, where CEP had been operating for six years, the Orlando Sentinel’s education blog cited a district official who said the contract termination was not a reflection of program quality, but the post did not offer further details along those lines. A few months back, The Gradebook asked Orange County officials, repeatedly, for student data on CEP. They promised to send the information several times, but did not follow through.

CEP has asked both Orange and Pinellas for permission to set up charter schools. Meanwhile, in Georgia, a CEP school has been targeted by an ACLU lawsuit.

Two colleges of education struggle

USF is taking a lot of heat for cutting ties between its College of Education and the USF/Patel Charter School (see here and here). But its ed school isn't the only one that has struggled trying to help a high-needs campus.

The Developmental Research School at FAMU earned an F last year before its students made big gains this year, moving the school up to a C. The FAMU DRS is not a charter, but like the Patel school it has close ties to a university ed school, in this case FAMU's. Its student body is 100 percent minority and 35 percent on free/reduced lunch, compared to 80 percent and 65 percent, respectively, at Patel.

There are three other university-tied lab schools in the state – at UF, FSU and FAU – but none of them have struggled as much as FAMU's in recent years, and none of them have the more challenging demographics. The St. Petersburg Times wrote about FAMU's DRS back in January, after a controversial hire. Here's the latest on the school from the Tallahassee Democrat.

- Ron Matus, state education reporter

Charter schools better for black students?

A new issue brief from the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools suggests they might be. And it cites evidence from Florida (go to page 3). The brief was co-written by the president of Black Alliance for Educational Options and an official with the much-heralded KIPP charters.

- Ron Matus, state education reporter

Want to run a charter school?

Never mind that many counties want it to simply go away. The Florida Schools of Excellence Commission is looking to increase its presence throughout Florida.

The state agency, created by the Legislature in 2007, has announced it wants applicants to serve as co-sponsors to operate new charter schools. The co-sponsors must be able to (in the group's words):

• Handle administrative responsibilities as a charter school sponsor
• Develop and maintain charter schools of the highest academic quality
• Provide financial resources and staff to monitor and support charter schools
• Serve low income, low performing, gifted or underserved student populations
• Articulate annual academic and financial goals and expected outcomes for its charter schools

Already, the commission has approved 17 charter schools on its own, and joined with one co-sponsor - the City of Hialeah.

Now, there are those who argue that the commission unconstitutionally usurps the role of local school districts. Fourteen counties including Pinellas, Pasco and Hernando are fighting that battle in court. They want exclusive control, something that the State Board of Education only granted to a small handful of districts.

It looks like until the courts decide the matter, though, the FSE will continue on. So if you want to be a co-sponsor, you can find the information here. The deadline is August 1.

Florida charters get federal boost

The U.S. Department of Education is presenting Florida with a $33.6 million grant this morning to help develop new charter schools. USDOE Deputy Secretary Raymond Simon is in Orlando to announce the grant, which will be split into $11 million chunks over three years. Florida is No. 4 in the nation in the number of charter schools, and No. 2 in the number of students enrolled in them.

Charter consortium joins exclusivity debate

The Florida Consortium of Public Charter Schools has entered the legal discussion over the state's role in granting charter school contracts, and guess which side it is supporting.

In a friend of the court brief, the consortium contends that the creation of the Florida Schools of Excellence Commission improves, rather than undercuts, the constitutional requirement for a uniform system of public education.

It would seem that the more equality there was for greater access to educational opportunities within and among districts, the more this supports the concept of a high quality and uniform system of education. Likewise, the more statewide consistency there is in the charter approval process, the more uniform over time will be the availability of charter options in every district.

The group also argues that the 14 districts pursuing the case mischaracterize the true nature of school boards' duties and powers under state law. Pasco School Board lawyer Dennis Alfonso, who was nice enough to forward the brief, told the Gradebook that it doesn't say anything unexpected. Duval County School Board et al v. State Board of Education is still chugging along in the First District Court of Appeal.

Same company, different school?

Because of budget cuts, the Pinellas County School Board wants to end its contract with Community Education Partners, the Nashville-based company that runs the Oak Park alternative school in Pinellas Park. But CEP has quickly offered up Plan B: A new charter school.

In a May 9 letter, CEP chief executive Randle Richardson says the company would like to open a charter school dropout prevention program in Pinellas that he says would save the district money and "demonstrate innovative leadership." "The Board can demonstrate that even in hard times it is not turning its back on students with the greatest needs," Richardson writes. "It can save money and save kids."

To save money, district officials are looking to redesign their alternative programs, including moving some of them to the fairly new building that houses Oak Park. The board briefly discussed the CEP charter idea at its workshop last Thursday, but took no action. It would need to expedite approval of a CEP application in order for the company to set up a charter by next school year.

CEP runs a handful of alternative schools around the country, including some in Orange County. An affiliate of CEP, Advanced Learning Systems of Tampa, is also developing dropout-prevention charters in Lee and Broward counties, according to this recent Fort Myers News-Press story.

- Ron Matus, state education reporter

The state responds in charter case

Lawyers for the State Board of Education have fired back in the lawsuit where 14 school districts including Pinellas, Pasco and Hernando contend that they, and not the state, should have authority over the charter schools in their counties. The state contends that the districts' main argument, that the Florida Constitution grants them the sole control over all public schools in their bounds, creates a slippery slope that doesn't take into account reality and could lead to increasing litigation:

The education code is replete with provisions requiring close state-level involvement with public schools. If the Legislature's prerogative were narrowed, much of the code would be impacted and litigation would multiply.

Further, the state argues that the law creating the Florida Schools of Excellence Commission doesn't take away school district powers, anyway:

Significantly, the new law did not diminish the district school boards' authority to oversee charter schools under the pre-existing charter school law (§ 1002.33, Fla. Stat.); school boards retain the same authority to receive applications and to authorize charter schools. The Commission only has "concurrent" authority to authorize charter schools.

It's a lengthy answer to the original complaint. If you want more, read the full brief here. Enjoy.

Remember charter school exclusivity?

Way back in October and November, several school districts were making noise about suing the State Board of Education over the right to control which charter schools open within their counties. They contended that local school districts - and not a state agency (the Florida Schools of Excellence Commission) - have the constitutional authority to "operate, control and supervise all free public schools within the school district."

Well, they've gone off and actually done it. After joining forces under one lawyer, and consolidating several complaints into one within the First District Court of Appeal, 14 districts including Pinellas, Pasco and Hernando have filed their initial brief in the case of Duval County School Board et al v. State Board of Education.

The argument is a simple one: "Charter schools are public schools and as such, they are subject to the authority of the local school boards under the Constitution. Allowing the Florida Schools of Excellence Commission to sponsor and operate charter schools within a school district violates article IX, section 4(b)."

The lawyers filed the brief on April 18. The state has 30 days to respond. To read the full brief, click here.

A charter school conundrum

So here's a question that's been floating around for years: Why does Pinellas County have so relatively few charter schools?

Sunday's St. Petersburg Times story didn't try to answer that question, but it did note that the Hillsborough school district – a district that isn't much bigger, student-wise – has four times as many charters.

Among the state's seven big urban districts, only Duval County, with five charter schools, has fewer than Pinellas' six. Miami-Dade has 63, Broward has 49, Palm Beach has 35 and Orange has 18. And plenty of smaller districts have more than Pinellas: Polk, for example, has 23. See for yourself here.

State Rep. John Legg, R-Port Richey, offered this possibility to The Gradebook: "One school of thought is that Pinellas County is doing a decent job of providing school choice in its existing schools," said Legg, who co-founded a charter school in Pasco, Dayspring Academy , that was modeled in part on the Academie Da Vinci charter school in Dunedin.

- Ron Matus, state education reporter

Jeb's charter could close

  When it opened in 1996, the Liberty City Charter School sparked a movement.

Headed by Jeb Bush (left), not yet governor, and T. Willard Fair (right), not yet State Board of Education chairman, the school in an impoverished section of Miami signaled the beginning of Florida's new initiative in which private groups would get public funds to run schools and be held to state accountability measures.

''Our opening had national implications,'' principal Katrina Wilson-Davis recalled to the Miami Herald. "I remember CNN and MSNBC coming down to our school site. Everybody wanted to see what accountability was all about. We were leading the charge.''

Hundreds of other charters followed, as did the rise in state politics for Bush and Fair.

Today, the charter movement continues. But the Miami-Dade School Board will consider shutting down Liberty City Charter, the Miami Herald reports. The school has faced a "financial emergency" for two years.

"I understand the position that the School Board is in, but I wish they would give us a little more time to get our finances in order,'' Wilson-Davis told the Herald. "We've done enough good work over the last 12 years to merit a second look.''

If not, the school's 200 or so students will be transferred to other schools in the district.