{"id":20419,"date":"2023-02-23T12:09:43","date_gmt":"2023-02-23T17:09:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/prichard-backup.com\/July\/?p=20419"},"modified":"2023-02-23T12:09:43","modified_gmt":"2023-02-23T17:09:43","slug":"charter-schools-whats-new-in-kentucky","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/prichard-backup.com\/July\/charter-schools-whats-new-in-kentucky\/","title":{"rendered":"Charter Schools: What’s New in Kentucky?"},"content":{"rendered":"

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”5723″ img_size=”large” alignment=”center”][ultimate_heading main_heading=”Charter Schools: What’s New in Kentucky?” heading_tag=”h3″ main_heading_style=”font-weight:bold;” main_heading_font_size=”desktop:32px;” margin_design_tab_text=”” sub_heading_font_size=”desktop:16px;”]By: Susan Perkins Weston<\/a> – Published: February 23, 2023:[\/ultimate_heading][vc_empty_space][vc_column_text single_style=”” css=”.vc_custom_1677090364041{padding-right: 10% !important;padding-left: 10% !important;}”]In April 2022, the General Assembly passed HB 9, setting charter school funding and deadlines for pilot charters in Jefferson County and northern Kentucky. In August, our blog series<\/a> summarized those rules and identified a few puzzles.<\/p>\n

There have been some new developments, so here’s a quick briefing on updated regulations, Northern Kentucky University\u2019s board decision not to take on a charter role, the lack of Jefferson County applications, new charter litigation, and the arrival of a Madison County charter school application.<\/p>\n

What’s in the new regulations?<\/h3>\n

In October, the Kentucky Board of Education amended state charter school regulations. Although KBE regulations can change operating rules for state initiatives, these amendments simply added what House Bill 9 required and deletes some terms that HB 9 removed from state law.<\/p>\n

Emergency versions of the amended regulations are in effect now. KBE adopted the emergency versions to provide clarity for charter applications to be filed early in 2023. Permanent versions will move more slowly through a legislative review process.<\/p>\n

How will Northern Kentucky authorize a charter school?<\/h3>\n

The Northern Kentucky University board will not become a charter school authorizer. HB 9 gave them 1\/2\/2023 deadline to opt into that role, but the board\u2019s December 2022 meeting, no director made a motion to take it up.<\/p>\n

Concerns listed in an NKU press release<\/a> included \u201clack of start-up funding available to the authorizer,\u201d the approval timeline, legal costs and \u201cthe financial viability of a small-scale charter schools\u201doperation.<\/p>\n

Since NKU bowed out, a charter must be authorized in Kenton or Campbell County by 7\/1\/2024, approved by a collective of 22 school board members: two each from Bellevue, Campbell, Covington, Dayton, Erlanger-Elsmere, Fort Thomas, Kenton, Ludlow, Newport, and Southgate.<\/p>\n

When will Jefferson County authorize a charter?<\/h3>\n

In January, no one applied to form a Jefferson County charter school. 1\/23\/23 was the JCPS board\u2019s deadline to apply for a 2024-25 opening date. House Bill 9 calls for that board to approve a charter by 7\/1\/23, but approval seems impossible without any applications.<\/p>\n

Earlier, Dr. Veda Pendleton had filed a notice of intent for a \u201cLYCEE of Louisville\u201d charter, listing its mission, governing board, and enrollment plan, but she did not file a full application by 1\/23\/23.
\nwww.jefferson.kyschools.us\/schools\/charter-schools\/charter-school-archives<\/p>\n

How will litigation affect authorization?<\/h3>\n

In December, the Kentucky Supreme Court<\/a> ruled that \u201ceducation opportunity accounts\u201d violated state constitutional rules. Though not about charter schools, the ruling may set precedent for K-12 funding cases.<\/p>\n

In January, the Council for Better Education, joined by Jefferson and Dayton school boards, filed suit<\/a> saying that charter funding violates Kentucky’s constitutio.<\/p>\n

Litigation like the new charter case will take months for initial motions, followed by hearings, briefings, a ruling, and appeals. The case may or may not be resolved in time for charter schools to open with clear financial resources in the summer\/fall of 2024.<\/p>\n

Will Madison County be the first Kentucky authorizer?<\/h3>\n

In January, Madison County did receive a charter application<\/a>. Gus LaFontaine, co-founder of LaFontaine Preparatory School and LaFontaine Early Learning Center, said his planned school will lower class sizes and raise teacher pay.<\/p>\n

Madison County has more than 7,500 students, so the board cannot block the application by refusing a memorandum of agreement. Instead, the board must act on the application within 60 days. If the board finds deficiencies, the applicant can ask for another 60 days to fix those problems.<\/p>\n

Taking all these developments together, Kentucky may open one charter school in 2024 in Madison County. That said a second charter is now looking unlikely until at least 2025.<\/p>\n

For our fuller analysis, download \u00a0<\/i>“Charter Schools: Some Kentucky Questions and Answers.”<\/span><\/strong>\u00a0<\/a>\u00a0We’ve compiled our May 2022 series and this\u00a0February 2023 update to get the basics of Kentucky rules all in one\u00a0document.<\/i>\u00a0To put the whole series in context, here’s a central\u00a0point\u00a0from Brigitte Blom’s post starting of this coverage:<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

“The Prichard Committee does not support or oppose charter schools for themselves. Our goal is excellence with equity in public education. In our 2014 report, we highlighted evidence that some charter schools have successfully contributed to moving forward on that agenda, as well as noting evidence that many charter schools do not help much and some moved students in the wrong direction. As Kentucky is positioned to open some charter schools in the near future, our focus remains the same: we want excellence and equity for all Kentucky students, and we\u2019ll press for charter schools to be part of achieving that goal. We plan to be serious about quality and serious about diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging \u2013for Kentucky public charter schools along with all the other public schools that serve our students and build our shared future.”<\/strong><\/span>
\n<\/i><\/p>\n

[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”5723″ img_size=”large” alignment=”center”][ultimate_heading main_heading=”Charter Schools: What’s New in Kentucky?” heading_tag=”h3″ main_heading_style=”font-weight:bold;” main_heading_font_size=”desktop:32px;” margin_design_tab_text=”” sub_heading_font_size=”desktop:16px;”]By: Susan Perkins Weston – Published: February 23, 2023:[\/ultimate_heading][vc_empty_space][vc_column_text single_style=”” css=”.vc_custom_1677090364041{padding-right: 10% !important;padding-left: 10% !important;}”]In April 2022, the General Assembly passed HB 9, setting charter school funding and deadlines for pilot charters in Jefferson County and northern Kentucky. In August, our<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":5723,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"passster_activate_protection":false,"passster_protect_child_pages":"","passster_protection_type":"password","passster_password":"","passster_activate_overwrite_defaults":"","passster_headline":"","passster_instruction":"","passster_placeholder":"","passster_button":"","passster_id":"","passster_activate_misc_settings":"","passster_redirect_url":"","passster_hide":"no","passster_area_shortcode":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[76],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20419","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ed"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/prichard-backup.com\/July\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20419","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/prichard-backup.com\/July\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/prichard-backup.com\/July\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prichard-backup.com\/July\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prichard-backup.com\/July\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20419"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/prichard-backup.com\/July\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20419\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20799,"href":"https:\/\/prichard-backup.com\/July\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20419\/revisions\/20799"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prichard-backup.com\/July\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5723"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/prichard-backup.com\/July\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20419"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prichard-backup.com\/July\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20419"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prichard-backup.com\/July\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20419"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}