Good day, CharterFolk.
There’s actually a lot of encouraging news out there in CharterLand at the moment.
Let’s start with Gabriella, which has been renewed on appeal by the Los Angeles County Office of Education.
Back in October, I wrote about LA Unified’s denial of Gabriella as evidence that many districts are willing to deny motherhood and apple pie.
That decision underscored the importance of having authorizers without conflicts of interest. This reversal reinforces that point.
Here’s another great story from Los Angeles …
… a profile of Shawn Brown, Executive Director at Rosebud Academy, demonstrating remarkable resilience as she helped her school community recover from last year’s fire.
Across town, Palisades is celebrating the re-opening of their charter high school.
Up north in Sonoma, a school district is considering providing a district facility to a new charter school after having recently approved its charter.
There is also a fresh burst of momentum in New Jersey …
… with some of it coming to Newark, right where we need it most.
The state authorizer in Tennessee overturned a ridiculous denial by the Nashville school district.
One wonders how many great options exist in Tennessee today because legislators created the Tennessee Public Charter School Commission in 2019.
In Indiana, lawmakers continuing working to define what Indianapolis Public Schools will evolve into …
… including confirmation that any new local tax proceeds the district might seek in an upcoming ballot measure would have to be equitable shared with charter schools.
In Philadelphia, a charter school is opening its own college so students can graduate with significant college credit at no cost.
In Orlando, parents voted in large numbers to convert their district school to charter status.
This morning, The 74 published a great piece on a Center City charter school in DC that is pushing the frontier on student outcomes.
Several North Carolina charter schools are also being recognized for strong academic achievement.
We will close with a charter school operating on another kind of frontier, helping a community 20 miles beyond Homer, Alaska gain a new option tailored to its unique needs.
So yes, as I noted at the top, there is a lot of encouraging news in CharterLand if we take a moment to notice it.