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03/28/2024 05:42 AM
Pennsylvania State Senate
https://www.legis.state.pa.us/cfdocs/Legis/CSM/showMemoPublic.cfm?chamber=S&SPick=20130&cosponId=14774
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Senate of Pennsylvania
Session of 2013 - 2014 Regular Session

MEMORANDUM

Posted: May 22, 2014 03:48 PM
From: Senator Lloyd K. Smucker
To: All Senate members
Subject: Charter School Study
 
Many of the issues being discussed as part of efforts to reform and update Pennsylvania’s charter school law have proved highly contentious. Perhaps the most misconceptions and controversy have arisen from a proposal to allow for an authorizer other than the school district.

An alternative authorizer may be a college or university, a statewide entity, or a multiple charter organization, where a number of schools are run under a single charter. This avenue holds the potential for opening a new generation of charter school opportunities, within the constraints of a reformed and strengthened charter school law that many legislators are working to achieve.

I will be introducing a resolution directing that a definitive study of alternative authorizers be conducted by the Legislative Budget & Finance Committee. As part of this study, LB&FC is to seek input from all interested parties in the Commonwealth, pro, con and neutral, and to review the experience in other states. Pennsylvania was early in with a charter school law, but there is now a great deal of other state experience on which we can draw. The purpose of the study is to sift through the conflicting claims and attempt to establish a foundation of fact as we consider this possibility.

The study will include the major factors in the charter school debate: performance, accountability, finances, and implications for school districts.

The deadline for the report is set for the end of this two-year legislative session, so the findings may serve as the basis for legislative action in the newly convened General Assembly.



Introduced as SR414