The House Education Committee passed a charter school bill (HB# 888) today by a 14-12 vote. Chairman John Moore (R-Brandon) called its passage "part of a journey" towards improving education. Copy of Bill. The Senate passed its own version of charter school legislation last week.
The bill contains the following provisions:
*All children in the state are eligible but a school district cannot make a student attend one.
*The "at-risk" population of the school cannot deviate more than 25% from the schools of the school district for that charter school. Representatives Espy and Moore said they wanted to prevent "cherry-picking" by charter schools.
*A non-charter-school converting to a charter school must give preference to students that are in the school, and their siblings. A lottery will be used if there is space available. This section (5) does not prevent schools focused on the disabled, kids posing discipline problems, or same-sex schools.
*A charter school board is established. The Governor appoints three members, the Lieutenant Governor appoints one, and the Speaker of the House appoints one.
*The initial term granted for a charter school is five years.
*The bill allows for creation of virtual charter schools but is limited to 2% of a district's population. The language concerning virtual schools probably accounted for a substantial portion of the opposition among committee members as several said they were not comfortable with the idea. Mr. Moore said the bill contained provisions mandating taking tests at the school and there are adequate controls to ensure the children were doing the work.
*PEER shall issue a report on charter school performance each year.
*Funding from the state will "follow the child" to the school.
A vigorous debate ensued between Representatives Holloway and Espy. Mr. Espy said there was more accountability for charter schools, as the state could shut them down, to which his opponent said, "You will be shutting down alot of them in five years." Representative Rita Martinson gave a speech that deserves hearing in the video posted below (part 5, 22:40). Parents' Campaign Executive Director Nancy Loome and Kelly Riley from MPE repeatedly shook their heads as they watched the committee debate the bill and vote on it. It was clear they were not pleased with how things went.
Chairman Moore said the bill would not be taken up by the House before next week. Here is the complete video of the House Education Committee meeting and vote on charter school legislation today. Sorry if audio is not the best as they did not use microphones and had the media jammed into one corner at the back of the room. Room was packed and that is putting it mildly. Enjoy.
Amendments offered. Virtual schools discussion begins at 9:00.
Virtual schools discussion continued. Representative Espy starts explaining his amendments at 9:10. It takes a while. ;-)
Mr. Espy continues his amendments. He and a member of the Black Caucus, Rep. Gregory Holloway go at it.
1:33: Espy discusses how Department of Education plays with ratings of school districts and the variables used to determine ratings. Watch Loome and her cadre at 2:28 on. Rep. Currie at 7:00. She brings up sports and recruiting. Won't happen. Rep. Nick Bain (D) brings up certification of teachers at 9:30. Rep. Rita Martinson lays it out in a speech at 22:40. Think I might edit that out into its own clip.
Vote at 9:25
Wednesday, February 29, 2012
Charter school bill clears House Ed Committee (Video of hearing).
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9 comments:
Makes one wonder about their mindset doesn't it?
So charter schools can't have athletic teams? Why not???
Was that Parents' Campaign Executive Director Nancy Loome or Parents' Campaign Lobbyist Nancy Loome in attendance?
Was Parents' Campaign Lobbyist Nancy Loome billing Parents' Campaign Executive Director Nancy Loome for her participation yesterday?
Was Nancy Loome getting paid out of two different Parents' Campaign buckets simultaneously?
KF, I don’t understand something. One of the things listed---
*The "at-risk" population of the school cannot deviate more than 25% from the schools of the school district for that charter school. Representatives Espy and Moore said they wanted to prevent "cherry-picking" by charter schools.*
Am I just not getting it? The charter school isn’t scouting for kids, the parents are scouting for a better education for their kid. I don’t understand that one.
I don’t really understand why this would be necessary--
*A charter school board is established. The Governor appoints three members, the Lieutenant Governor appoints one, and the Speaker of the House appoints one.
I thought charter schools had their own board. Why would there be a government/political board created?
Sincere thanks to you Mr. Kingfish for everything you do to bring all this information to our attention. We are blessed to have you here because no other media in Mississippi would show us these nitty gritty scenes behind the scenes. When you see paid defenders of the status quo such as Mrs. Loome shaking their heads as if they alone are the subject matter experts you understand that their opposition has nothing at all to do with educating students. Watching Mrs. Loome on your video reminded me of one of Albert Einstein's famous sayings:
"We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them."
Ditto, 9:05 a.m.
Excellent post.
Don't forget there's a "donate" button just to the right ;)
@12:02, would love to but no option to donate unless you have a credit card to use. Give me a POB and I'll gladly mail something. KF does a great job.
KF, not a blog post, just trying to let you know Celia Emmerich passsed away.
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