Press Release (Embargoed until Aug. 15, 1:00 PM)
Contact Eddie Goodall
Executive Director
704.236.1234
Charter schools demand “just the facts” from the NC School Boards Association
Charlotte, NC August 15, 2012
The NC Public Charter Schools Association today released a rebuttal, entitled “Just the Facts”, to a report issued by the North Carolina School Boards Association (NCSBA). The report, called “NC’s Charter School Law, Creating Two Public Education Systems”, was issued to all the state’s district school boards in July and followed the preliminary approval of twenty-five new charters to open in 2013.
The Director of Governmental Relations of the SBA issued a letter with the report stating, “From a public policy perspective what this report clearly shows is that North Carolina now has two separate and unequal public education systems operating simultaneously under different legal and ethical requirements.” The report makes charges such as charters are governed by “unaccountable boards” and charters are “exempt from …ethical laws”.
Eddie Goodall, Executive Director of the charter group, made the following statement:
“The 2011 General Assembly saw that our state’s families wanted more options and wisely, and with all but a handful of votes, ended the suffocating 15 year, 100 school cap on charters. The Charter Advisory Council was created and has done a commendable job in its inaugural year. The State Board of Education has supported the intent of the legislature since Senate Bill 8’s passage. Despite this collaboration across the state, and with eight new charters opening this month and up to 25 being approved for next year, it must have been too tempting for the SBA not to strike at the 108 small schools now chartered. These free open schools of choice sprinkled across only half of the state’s counties represent a less than apocalyptic shadow on the state’s 2,482 school public system.”
The “Just the Facts” rebuttal can be found here.
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