A task force charged with reworking Hawaii’s charter school law agreed Wednesday on proposed legislation that its leader called a "game changer" for the charter system.
"We are presenting a very substantive package of recommendations that really does preserve that autonomy that charter schools need to be flexible while at the same time provides a governance structure that ensures accountability," Sen. Jill Tokuda said.
Tokuda spoke after presiding over the final meeting of the Charter School Governance, Accountability and Authority Task Force, which has been meeting since July to work out contentious issues surrounding charter schools.
The plan the task force unanimously approved would put each public charter school on an annual performance contract. It would also strengthen the statewide authority that oversees the school system and alter the makeup and responsibilities of the charter schools’ individual governing boards.
"A real game changer and breakthrough is the institution of performance contracts," Tokuda said. "In the past your charter application was by default your contract. That was not enough. It needs to constantly be assessed and changed and modified to make sure it’s meeting the best needs of students."
"We have to make sure that the structure is there so that good charters can thrive, so that charters that are struggling will have those annual performance contracts, and in the end if you cannot make it as a charter, you will close."
The proposal would also remove the limit on the number of charter schools, although the Legislature had already raised that cap to the point where there are now more slots available than applicants.
Task force members agreed to beef up independent governance and reduce the potential for conflicts of interest at charter schools by prohibiting school employees and their relatives from leading their school’s governing board. However, in a compromise with members who opposed that provision, the task force agreed to allow the charter school authorizer to make exceptions in special cases.
"I would hesitate to be too prescriptive in this area as to what a local school or governing board should do," said Gene Zarro, representing the Hawaii Charter School Network, adding that a small school might need to have an employee lead its governing board.
The proposed legislation would cap at 30 percent the number of employees that can serve on a school’s governing board.
The Charter School Review Panel, the volunteer statewide body that authorizes charter schools and oversees the system, would be replaced be a Public Charter School Commission with its own dedicated staff.
Meanwhile, the Charter School Administrative Office, which serves as staff to both the panel and to schools, would be phased out. Functions it performs, such as payroll and information technology, would be shifted to the schools’ governing boards.
The makeup of those boards would also change under the proposal. The law now specifies that specific constituency groups, such as teachers, administrators and parents, elect representatives to school boards. The proposed language would instead require members to be "selected" based on qualifications and experience, such as strong financial management and academic oversight.
"The No. 1 reason that charter schools close is because they are not viable organizations," Stephanie Shipton, education policy analyst at the National Governors’ Association’s Center for Best Practices, told the task force Wednesday. "They fall apart financially, fall apart in the operations because they don’t have a strong governing board, because they don’t have an understanding of how to run a nonprofit organization."
Other recommendations would:
» Allow for multiple authorizers of charter schools, along with the statewide panel. New authorizers would be responsible for their own staff.
» Streamline the application process, giving each prospective new charter school one chance to apply annually, rather than allowing applicants to keep revising their applications.
A final draft of the task force recommendations will be distributed for comment before it is presented to the Legislature.
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On the Net:
» www.capitol.hawaii.gov/specialcommittee.aspx?comm=csgtf
