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News & Information
PCCS Response to Pennsylvania House Bill 1833
April 1, 2008
A letter to PA State Legislators from Lawrence F. Jones, Jr., PCCS President.
Pennsylvania House of Representatives Education Committee
Room 43 A EW Pennsylvania Capitol Building
Harrisburg, PA 17120-3037
Honorable Members of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives Education Committee:
You should have received correspondence outlining our objections to HB 1833 last week. Once again, I'd like to urge you to vote "no" on HB 1833.
Charter schools are already subject to the provisions of No Child Left Behind and every other state/federal assessment tool. The bill and subsequent amendment you will vote on tomorrow goes even further by stating (paraphrase): notwithstanding that a charter school has met performance standards set forth in its charter or in relevant law or regulation, a charter may be revoked or non-renewed if, for two consecutive years their pssa scores fall below the scores of the district where the majority of the students are enrolled.
In plain English, what this bill says is that even if the charter school is doing what it said it was going to do and is meeting set standards, the chartering school district can revoke the charter after just two years. Is this fair?
Charter schools have layers upon layers of accountability and quite frankly, they can and should be closed if they aren't doing the job after their charter expires. To short circuit the process put in place, especially when you consider charter schools students typically weren't being served at the school they came from and very frequently come to the school not reading and/or writing at grade level, is a punitive action against the dedicated staff, children and families enrolled in charter schools. Please VOTE NO on HB 1833 tomorrow.
Sincerely,
Lawrence Jones, President, PCCS
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