Charter Schools

When it comes to public money for private schools and oversight of charter schools, the Harford County Board of Education and the administration of Harford County Public Schools have it right by being opposed. When it comes to public money for private schools and oversight of charter schools, the Harford County Board of Education and the administration of Harford County Public Schools have it right by being opposed. In the school system's recently-released 2012 legislative platform, Harford County Public Schools is against any public funding of private education and it's equally opposed to any new laws that would allow charter schools to operate without being required to comply with "state law and [Harford school]

Chesapeake Math and IT Academy Public Charter School , located at 6100 Frost Place, in West Laurel, will hold a silent auction on Nov. 12, from 1 to 4 p.m., at the school. Items up for bid include 15 themed baskets, hotel stays, one week at a villa in Costa Rica, gift certificates and electronics. Light refreshments will also be served. Proceeds from the event will go to the purchase of a large oven for the cafeteria to warm up food, which range from $9,000 to $12,000, and for the purchase of a school bus, which can cost between $10,000 to $50,000.

Mount St. Joseph football coach Blake Henry thought about calling a draw play for quarterback Luke Casey when the Gaels had a chance to win Thursday night's game against Friendship Collegiate Academy. Instead, trailing 18-13 with 3 yards to go on fourth down and 10.1 seconds on the clock, the coach opted for a pass play to Sam Benjamin. Casey's pass didn't reach Benjamin on the goal line, because Friendship defensive back Reginal Wyatt made a diving deflection to preserve the Knights' victory in the I-95 Kickoff Classic at Bowie State University.

Montgomery County school board officials deserve congratulations for their decision this week to allow the first charter school to open in the district. For years, board members resisted pressure to authorize charter schools, arguing they would distract from efforts to improve a school system that was already regarded as one of the best in the country. The dynamic there was the same one that has slowed the charter school movement in nearly every Maryland school district; critics complain that everywhere except Baltimore City, local officials have simply sought to avoid the competition from publicly financed but independently operated charters.

The Baltimore Leadership School for Young Women named Jennifer Wheeler Teacher of the Year for 2010-11. She completed a second year on the faculty of the Baltimore public charter school onFranklin Street. She is the social studies/language arts team leader and a sixth-grade teacher. A 2001 alumna of Catonsville High School, Wheeler earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in history from the University of Virginia. After participating in the Baltimore City Teaching Residency program, she received a master's degree in teaching fromJohns Hopkins University.

Bs-ed-charter-schools. In principle, Baltimore and other school districts ought to be providing the same level of financial support for a student whether he or she attends a traditional public school or a charter school. In that light, the news that the city will be providing $9,300 per pupil to charters next year but only $5,000 per pupil in traditional schools sounds like an injustice. But that comparison is misleading and not particularly meaningful. Traditional schools benefit from a host of resources provided by the system’s central administration – maintenance and other facility costs, principals’ salaries and other services are handled out of the North Avenue budget, not those of individual schools.

Baltimore school system officials and charter leaders are at odds over how to address an anticipated funding disparity — an issue that led to a contentious court battle five years ago. In the district's proposed fiscal year 2012 budget — expected to be adopted by the school board Tuesday — charters will receive $9,300 per pupil, compared with the traditional schools' $5,000 per pupil. The district's allotment to charter schools will also increase by $13 million over last year because of a surge in enrollment numbers.

Baltimore City schools will receive more per-pupil funding next school year but will have less flexibility in how they spend it under the first phase of 2012 budget recommendations approved by the city school board Tuesday. The board approved school funding recommendations made by city schools CEO Andrés Alonso, which included a $56 per-pupil increase in base funding from last year to $5,000 per pupil. The city's charter schools will receive roughly $9,300 per pupil. The district's school-based funding, which allows principals to have autonomy over their individual budgets, will increase by nearly $11 million next year; however, the amount of flexible dollars that drives the school system's Fair Student Funding model will decrease by about 5 percent.

Charter schools by design enjoy more freedom to experiment than their public school counterparts, which makes them ideal laboratories for incubating new approaches to education reform, where there is no one-size-fits-all formula. The very diversity of charter schools is one of their greatest strengths. That's why a recent report suggesting that Baltimore's KIPP Ujima Village Academy charter school isn't a sustainable model for school reform elsewhere seems to miss the point. Test scores at Baltimore's KIPP school, which opened a decade ago and recently reached a deal with the teachers union to remain in the city another 10 years, consistently rank among the highest in the state, and 85 percent of the kids eventually go on to college.

One of the most sought-after public charter schools in Baltimore has stopped administering an entrance placement exam after city schools CEO Andrés Alonso expressed concern that the practice — the only one of its kind in the city — could discourage some applicants. The test at Knowledge is Power Program (KIPP) Ujima Academy in Northwest Baltimore, Alonso said, could deter families of lower-performing students from seeking enrollment. Since 2003, a year after opening in Baltimore, the school has used a diagnostic exam to determine whether students seeking to enter sixth grade were performing at comparable reading and math levels as KIPP Ujima's fifth-grade classes.