Washington: Supporters of a charter school ballot initiative raise $5 million in six weeks, including another $2 million from Bill Gates (Associated Press).

California: A judge rules that parents who won a parent trigger battle can open a charter school next fall (Los Angeles Times).

Florida: A new initiative to put more students into STEM fields taps students in traditional, magnet and charter schools (redefinED). A long-troubled Imagine charter school continues to test the patience of the school board in Pinellas County (Tampa Bay Times). In Palm Beach County, thousands of parents and students show up for a school choice showcase that includes magnet and charter schoools (Palm Beach Post). 

Pennsylvania: Republican lawmakers postpone discussion on a proposed statewide authorizer for charter schools (Pittsburgh Post Gazette). The U.S. Department of Education questions how state education officials revised rules to gauge whether charter school met academic standards (Philadelphia Inquirer). A bill to toughen oversight of charter schools dies in the state House (Associated Press).

Georgia: State senate candidates are divided over charter schools and a charter school ballot initiative (Douglas County Sentinel).

New Jersey: Charter schools tied to the highly regarded KIPP network are gearing up to expand (NJSpotlight.com).

Louisiana: An effort to recall lawmakers who supported the state's new voucher program fizzles (Associated Press). (more…)

Education reform, for some of us, is full of tough calls. And for some of us, there can be particular agony in the gray area where race, poverty and both types of accountability – parental choice and regulatory – intersect.

Last week, the school board in Pinellas County, Fla., voted 4-3 against their superintendent’s recommendation to begin the process of closing a charter school in the city of St. Petersburg. The Imagine elementary school, serving predominantly low-income, African-American kids, had just earned its third F grade in four years of operation because of painfully low standardized test scores. Only 29 percent of its students were reading at grade level, according to the state test; only 13 percent were reaching the bar in math. Only one school in the district had performed worse – another charter – and the board had already voted to shutter it.

In the case of Imagine, the board was knotted by a a number of entangling factors, including a vote two months ago – before the release of school grades – to renew the school’s contract. Before the second vote, nearly 20 parents, teachers, administrators and company officials pleaded with the board to keep the school open. They were passionate, thoughtful, respectful – and collectively powerful. We thought their comments were worth sharing, and we excerpted a number of them below. (You can see the speakers on this video here; their presentations begin just before the 41 minute mark. The board debate begins at 3:18:39).

As you weigh the pros and cons, a few points to keep to mind: Black students in Pinellas perform worse than black students in every other urban district in Florida. The number of charter schools has grown rapidly in Pinellas, but not in neighborhoods with large numbers of low-income families of color. The district still isn’t home to a known quantity like KIPP or YES Prep with a record of success with minority kids. And the school board, like many of its counterparts across Florida, recently passed a resolution critical of standardized testing.

Here are the excerpts, edited for length:

Qiana Scott, parent: “You can’t make a decision to close down an institution that is there for the kids based on a standardized test. Because all of our kids are not standard. Kids learn differently. They are taught differently. And at Imagine, that is something that is definitely recognized. So the teachers take that extra time and the extra care to say, “You learn this way, I will teach you the way that you learn best.” So therefore, our kids are learning. It definitely hurts a lot of the parents and a lot of the staff because everybody has worked so hard all year, and to hear that Imagine could possibly be closed down – that’s like splitting up a family. And that’s what we are at Imagine. We are family.“ (more…)