From the General Assembly, JLF’s Becki Gray tweets that the Senate has adjourned until noon so the Education Committee can cram through S.B. 704, the legislative fig leaf North Carolina will offer the Obama adminstration in hopes of getting $400 million from the federal Race to the Top program.
To meet the Obama administration’s deadline for the second round of funding, the state must have its application completed by June 1, so the Senate would have to pass the bill unamended (probably today) and then send it to Gov. Bev Perdue lickety-split to meet the deadline.
In a CJ Exclusive published Monday, Jim Stegall mentioned the concept behind the bill first articulated by state school board chief William Harrison:
At the conclusion of the regular May meeting of the [school] board, Harrison informed board members that he was working on a proposal to allow each school district the option of converting one of its lowest-performing schools into a charter school.
In an interview, Harrison expanded on the idea. ?We?re trying to provide an alternative for some schools that haven?t done well,? he said. ?One intent of the charter school legislation was to give schools the opportunity not to be restricted by state board policies and legislation.? His proposal, which is still being drafted, could allow these ?district charters? greater flexibility in terms of staffing, programs, and operations.
Under Harrison?s plan, the newly converted charters would still fall under the control of their local school boards, unlike traditional charters which have their own independent boards. In the district charters, the selection of the principal, setting of the budget, and other major decisions would be made by the local school board, but these schools would be freed from some district rules, including hiring and firing of staff and compensation.
The standards for student achievement, however, would be the same as for other charter schools, and any district charter that failed to meet those standards would lose its charter and revert to being a regular district school. ?With freedom comes responsibility,? Harrison said.
If I’m reading the bill correctly, lawmakers removed the only provision of Harrison’s proposal that might make a difference: the one giving these kinda-charters the flexibility to hire and fire staff and set compensation (think performance-based or merit pay).
The language reads:
A school operated under this subdivision remains under the control of the local board of education, and employees assigned to the school are employees of the local school administrative unit with the protections provided by G.S. 115C-325.
Sounds a lot like teachers in what the bill calls “restart” schools would have the same privileges and perks as their colleagues in regular district schools.
Some reform, eh?
David N. Bass wrote about the run-up to the House vote on S.B. 704 here.
John Hood explained the pretensions behind the bill here.
