Cleveland County Board of Education

1. Cleveland County Board of Education Legislative Report February 28, 2011

2. Senate Bill 8 • No Cap on Number of Charter Schools • Eliminates cap on number of charters • True • Currently over 15,000 NC children on waiting lists to enter NC charter schools. • Will require Cleveland County supplemental tax to be sent out of county • Will enable supplemental tax monies paid by parents in CC to follow their child and benefit the school in which their child is enrolled. • Allows capital funding to go out of county • Again, sales taxes paid by parents in CC will follow their child and benefit the school in which their child is enrolled. (Capital funding goes out of county anyway. NC Public Schools invariably hire outside GCs when they build schools.) • Requires sending funds to charters for programs they do not have from all sources except designated donations • This is not a change and was the agreed-upon compromise for not giving charter schools per pupil access to the capital fund. The original charter school law that has been in effect since 1996 included the same requirement. We cannot help if they want to reneg on the original deal.

3. Senate Bill 8 (continued) • Allows charters to receive funds that they do not have to share with school districts • As the previous argument pointed out – charters don’t have those programs and aren’t funded for those programs. You can’t share what you don’t have. • Would result in higher per pupil funding for charter schools • Untrue. Cannot be proven. Don’t forget to add capital funds. • Eliminates a minimum number of students for a charter school • True. Creates the opportunity to focus on specialized populations (e.g. autism, deaf, blind, talented/gifted, etc.) in a focused environment. • Eliminates any requirement that charter schools reflect the ethnic and socio-economic make-up of the district • First, nothing in the law permits charter schools to discriminate on the basis of ethnicity, socioeconomic factors, etc. NC charters have already achieved this benchmark. Nearly half of NC charter schools serve inner-city, minority children. Nearly every charter school in NC serves at risk and exceptional children.

4. Senate Bill 8 (continued) • Allows charters to continue to exclude students with special needs • Completely False. Direct Quote from Page 11, Line 1 of S8: Any child who is qualified under the laws of this State for admission to a public school is qualified for admission to a charter school. • Removes significant oversight by state board of thus creating a dual system • The SBE reserves absolute veto power over the commission. The commission is located under the SBE and allows the SBE to retain oversight of all schools in NC while delegating supervision of charter schools to the commission. • Does not require charter to provide transportation, food service, ensure teacher licensure or prohibit returning students with disciplinary or academic issues to traditional public school districts • The bill maintains the requirement that transportation not be a barrier. Charter schools have some of the most innovative and successful transportation plans in place to ensure compliance with this law. By the way, buses are purchased with capital funds. • Most charter schools have food service programs, but even for those that do not, a policy is required under the SBE$ to prevent any child from not having access to lunch (or even breakfast in some schools). • Teacher licensure requirements for charters ARE contained in the law; however, this allows charters to tap the talents of retired chemists, physicians, biologists, attorneys, accountants, CEOs, Ph.D.s, etc. to teach in the classroom.

5. Senate Bill 8 • Financial impact this year would be an additional $400,000 reduction for Cleveland County Schools • Does this include the reduction in direct costs associated with serving fewer students? It should. Funding follows the child. • Total charter funding impact to Cleveland County Schools current budget would equal a loss of 13 teaching positions • Or 3 central office positions. • Co-sponsored by Senator Clary Yes, I co-sponsored this bill and the original Charter School bill that was passed 16 years ago. I’ve never been happy with being the 43rd ranked school system in the country. We’ve invested billions in education and most of it lands in the administrative offices and never reaches the classroom teacher where the real difference is. • Passed Senate, now in the House