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Many Questions Raised in Legislative Hearing on Texas Charter School Expansion Bill

Posted byHoumanitarian
Image: Texas Tribune

Maurice Chammah, Texas Tribune
At a Thursday Senate Education Committee hearing, Sen. Dan Patrick, R-Houston, continued his push for school-choice reform by attempting to build consensus around his bill to expand charter schools.

Patrick’s Senate Bill 2 would overhaul the state’s charter school system by creating a new state board to authorize new charter schools and lift the cap on the number of these schools that can exist in the state. Current law sets a limit at 215 charter schools, which are overseen by the State Board of Education and the Texas Education Agency. It would also allow an allotment for state facilities funding for charters, which along with the state cap on charter school contracts, is a primary focus of a lawsuit pending against the state.

Patrick, the committee’s chairman, faced concerns from other lawmakers over that lifting the cap would reduce quality and creating a new authorization agency would reduce accountability to voters.

The bill was also opposed by various public school advocacy groups, including Raise Your Hand Texas. The current cap, CEO David Anthony said in a statement, assures “quality control.” Patrick’s current bill, he said, would weaken the standard for renewing charter and be “fundamentally at odds with the goal of producing more high-performing charters to benefit students and families.”

“The cap creates a pressure on low performers,” state Sen. Wendy Davis, D-Fort Worth, said at the hearing Thursday.

“It’s a pretty crude tool to use that as your quality strategy,” responded Greg Richmond, president of the National Association of Charter School Authorizers, explaining that creating an authorizing body, another provision of Patrick’s bill, will do far more to ensure quality. “Approve the good proposals, don’t approve the bad ones,” Richmond said.

Patrick brought in a panel of national charter school advocates to bolster his arguments. Deborah McGriff, chairwoman of the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, touted the ability of charter schools to prepare students for college, and said that roughly 18 other states do not have a cap on the number of charter schools. Ref Rodriguez, CEO of the California-based group Partners for Developing Futures, said the innovations in charter schools often benefit traditional public schools.

The proposed “Charter School Authorizing Authority,” Patrick said, would handle the new workload and include seven members appointed by state leaders, including the governor, lieutenant governor and education commissioner. State Sen. Leticia Van de Putte, D-San Antonio, worried this would mean that “un-elected people” would “govern the schools.”

Patrick responded that they would be appointed by elected officials and that he envisions allowing teachers and school administrators more latitude. “Set them free and let them perform and hold them accountable,” he said.
(Read more of this story at the Texas Tribune)

MORE COVERAGE:
• Educators Push Back on Charter School Expansion (Austin Statesman)
• Charter-Friendly HISD Doesn’t Like Sen. Dan Patrick’s Charter School Bill (Houston Press)

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