Category: Posts (Newest to Oldest)

A chronological listing of APPS post descending from the newest to the oldest.

Board of Education Must Deny GLA Charter Application

by Deborah Grill      

There are several reasons why the Board of Education should deny Global Leadership Academy’s application to open a third charter school, a high school in North Philadelphia at its February 2024 action meeting.  The district already has 82 existing charter schools, most of which, including the two existing Global Leadership Academy schools, have not outperformed the district’s public schools. In fact, one reason why the Board of Education denied this application the first two times it was submitted, in addition to the very flawed application, was GLA’s poor performance at Huey Elementary, its Renaissance charter school.  The district’s current 82 charter schools cost the district considerably in tuition fees and stranded costs. The district cannot afford any more charter schools without further diminishing the education of the students in its existing schools, who must try to learn in understaffed and toxic buildings, with many basic resources paid out of the pockets of teachers. In addition, the district does not need any new charter schools, as over half of the 82 operating now are under-enrolled. 

Almost all of the founding members who attended the January 23 public hearing either had worked at one of the current schools, were currently employed by GLA, or had a business contract with GLA. No public testimony was heard at this hearing.

This third application from Global Leadership Academy Charter High School is less than truthful, as was the case in the first two. The applicants continue to disavow their two existing charter schools, both of which contain the name “Global Leadership Academy”.  During the public application hearing on January 23, members of the applicant’s founding coalition went out of their way to distance themselves from GLA’s two existing schools.  There are four separate entities here, often referred to interchangeably during the hearing. Unintentionally or not, this muddies the waters of the relationship among the schools, the applicant, the management organization, and the academic/business service.

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Board Message to District Charter Operators: No Consequences for Substandard Performance

Board of Education Action Meeting:  January 25, 2023

by Deborah Grill, Lynda Rubin, Lisa Haver

Board Caves on Charter Renewal                   
At this action meeting, the Board of Education sent a clear message to all charter operators in the district: no matter how inadequate the education you provide to your students, no matter how many barriers to enrollment you use to exclude children, no matter how precarious your finances–we will let you carry on. The Board disregarded the law and its own procedures and policies when it caved to obvious political pressure and voted unanimously to reverse its previous decision and renew Southwest Leadership Academy Charter School. Dawn Chavous, charter lobbyist and now co-chair of Mayor Cherelle Parker’s Education Sub-Committee, testified in favor of renewing the charter.  Board members offered a variety of rationalizations but never explained how this one charter managed to be reconsidered for renewal after two votes not to renew. As Lisa Haver pointed out in her testimony, the Board voted last year for non-renewal after an extensive legal process in which data and evidence were reviewed, public testimony was heard, and the charter administrators had time to explain their failure to meet standards. The Board was now reversing itself without presenting any new evidence or explanation, she said.  The Board’s round-robin of questions before the vote amounted to a charade in which they acted as if this was just another renewal consideration, not an unprecedented reversal that ignored all data and evidence entered into the record.  Only one Board member asked what would happen if SWLA failed to carry out the conditions listed in the agreement.  Charter Schools Office Director Peng Chao responded that they could note that in the next renewal evaluation in 2027. In other words, there will be no enforcement of the conditions in the agreement, which has set academic conditions even lower than those that Southwest had failed to meet in its last evaluation. Chao also stated that his office remained open to collaborating with the school to ensure they meet the conditions. No board member pointed out that the CSO can only do that by manipulating the current standards and conditions and that only the school’s administration and staff could make sure that their students received an adequate education. One board member, apparently unaware of charter schools’ enrollment limits, suggested that the school needed to get more students to boost finances. More funding for Southwest Leadership Academy would of course mean less funding for District schools. This 5-year renewal will cost the district a minimum of $10 million. When Board leadership claims, repeatedly, to be “child-centered”, it seems that doesn’t apply to children at substandard charter schools.

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Parker’s Choice of Education Advisors Raises Questions

January 2, 2024

The following commentary was written by APPS co-founder Lisa Haver and published in The Philadelphia Hall Monitor on January 2, 2024

The most striking feature of Mayor Cherelle Parker’s Sub-Committee on Education is its dearth of educators. Her selections raise questions about who will have more influence on education spending and policies in her administration. The list contains just one public teacher and one principal, and no one is identified as a parent or student. There are numerous representatives from businesses and nonprofits but none from grass-roots community groups. In contrast, there are several charter administrators and investors. One of the four vice chairs, Dawn Chavous, is a charter school lobbyist and consultant. Some representation from the charter sector is expected, but Parker’s selection of those whose schools have performed so poorly that they face non-renewal is puzzling, especially those cited for questionable financial practices and sexual harassment.

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Board Must Do More to Defend Public Schools in the New Year

Board of Education Action Meeting:  December 7, 2023

by Lynda Rubin and Lisa Haver

On the day before this meeting, Board President Reginald Streater appeared as a panelist at a special hearing of the Education Committee of City Council. The hearing,  held remotely and presided over by Committee Chair Councilmember Isaiah Thomas, was the most recent in a series convened by Council to discuss alleged racial discrimination by the district against Black charter operators. Councilmember Quetcy Lozada was the only other Committee member to attend. Streater’s panel consisted only of him. A second panel featured one professor from Alabama and another from Arkansas, both testifying on behalf of charter operators. The third panel was made up of local charter school administrators. The committee apparently did not invite anyone who may have had an opinion not shared by charter operators. The allegation that the district has discriminated against certain charter operators was accepted as fact, even though an independent report commissioned by the Board concluded that there was no intentional discrimination on the part of the district in non-renewal decisions. There was no discussion of the data and performance that resulted in charters being placed in non-renewal status. Lisa Haver signed up as one of the registered public speakers. She questioned how charter operators now had a problem with a performance framework that they helped to formulate. 

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