April 2022

Eight charter schools earned a spot on a list of the top 25 public high schools in North Carolina. That’s according to new 2022 rankings from U.S. News & World Report. The media outlet released its 2022 rankings earlier this week, evaluating nearly 18,000 public high schools nationwide.

According to U.S. News, rankings are based on these six factors:

• College readiness
• Reading and math proficiency
• Reading and math performance
• Underserved student performance
• Breadth of college curriculum
• Graduation rates

Learn more about U.S. News & World Report’s methodology.

In North Carolina, charter schools shine

Nearly one-third of North Carolina’s top 25 public high schools are charter schools. Four are Coalition member schools. U.S. News evaluated 534 public high schools to compile the state’s list.

Here are the charter schools on the list of the top 25 N.C. public high schools. Coalition member schools are in bold.

• Raleigh Charter High School (#3)
• Woods Charter (#4)
• Gray Stone Day School (#9)
• Research Triangle High School (#12)
• Thomas Jefferson Classical Academy (#14)
• Pine Lake Preparatory (#16)
• Lake Norman Charter (#22)
• Community School of Davidson (#23)

Congratulations to these schools for earning this impressive recognition!

Learn more

• National rankings overall
• National public charter rankings
• North Carolina rankings overall
• North Carolina public charter rankings

K-12 education is top of mind for many voters as election season draws near. That’s a key take-away from a new national poll of voters, conducted in March by Murmuration, a “multi-partisan, political strategy organization.”  Polling data feature responses from a national sample of voters as well as voters in 10 “focus jurisdictions” (9 states and the District of Columbia).

Overall findings show voters believe education is critically important. They want change in schools, and now. Moreover, following two years of pandemic learning, “school choice is ascendant,” notes Murmuration.

Change, right now

• 52% of voters say K-12 education is “very important right now.”
• 54% of parents of school-aged children say now is the time “to begin working on the big ideas and changes necessary to improve education for our children.”
• 57% of voters support school choice.

Here’s the table from the poll memo with the school choice breakdown by party affiliation:

Source: Murmuration Politics of Education 2022 Benchmark Poll (Memo)

A majority of voters support school choice

Among voters, 66% of Republicans, 59% of Independents, and 51% of Democrats support school choice.

While there are no substantive generational differences in support for choice among Republicans, that is not true for Democrats. Specifically, among Democrats, poll findings show a “shifting set of generational values,” notes Murmuration. Support for choice is strongest among younger Democrats and weakest among older Democrats.

• For instance, 61% of Gen Z and millennial Democrats support school choice.
• 54% of Gen X Democrats support choice
• Just 38% of Baby Boomer and Silent Generation Democrats support school choice.

More than 6 in 10 voters support public charter schools

The poll also found 61% of voters support public charter schools nationwide; just 25% oppose charters. Here’s the table from the poll cross tabs:

Source: Murmuration Politics of Education 2022 Benchmark Poll (Cross tabs)

Read more

Read analysis from Emma Bloomberg, founder and CEO of Murmuration, in The 74. Find the poll memo here. Review poll cross tabs here.

This week, the Center for Education Reform announced the launch of the 2022 STOP Awards. Offered in partnership with Forbes, the awards represent $10 million in grants for innovative education providers. This is the second year of the program. Last year’s cycle identified all sorts of innovation with underserved students during the pandemic. It also led to the launch of the STOP Foundation 4 Education.

The STOP acronym stands for:

• Sustainable
• Transformational
• Outstanding
• Permissionless

Are you interested in applying for an award? If so, applications are open now through July 15.

Read the news release here. Learn more about the 2021 award winners. Apply here.

The pushback against the Biden Administration’s proposed charter regulations has a new set of allies: the governors of 18 states. Yesterday, the governors sent a letter to U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona. They urged changes to the regulations and requested more time for the public to weigh in.

The governors wrote:

The letter is the latest installment of what has become a national backlash against the regulations. Earlier, on April 6, U.S. Senators Burr, Braun, Cornyn, Cassidy, Scott, and Rubio sent a letter to Secretary Cardona asking for more time for public comment. As a result, the Department extended the comment period for five days, from April 13 to April 18. As of 11:59 p.m. last night, the end of the comment period, the Federal eRulemaking Portal had registered nearly 30,000 comments.

Read more about action nationwide

• The Washington Post‘s editorial referring to the Administration’s “sneak attack” on charter schools
• National Review‘s coverage of the governors’ letter
• The 74‘s article covering push-back from charter advocates

Learn more about action in North Carolina

The comment period for proposed federal Charter Schools Program (CSP) requirements has been extended. The new deadline to submit a comment is April 18.

READ MORE

Kimberly Inman, 6th grade teacher at Pinnacle Classical Academy (Photo Credit: North Carolina State Board of Education)

Next steps

We need you to take action. The U.S. Department of Education has proposed a new rule that would limit charter growth. Specifically, the rule would make it much more difficult for public charter schools to open and operate with federal support through the Charter Schools Program (CSP). Moreover, while CSP is relatively small, its restructuring through these regulations could set a worrying precedent for charter independence.

Here are some key concerns the Coalition and others are voicing:

• Charter growth is linked to over-enrolled district schools rather than parental demand or school quality: Applicants must include a “community impact analysis” offering evidence that charter growth or expansion “does not exceed the number of public schools needed to accommodate the demand in the community.”
• Districts–rather than parents–have power over charter growth: Some grant applicants must share a letter from a district or district school expressing a commitment to collaborate.
• Regulations make it harder for majority-minority charter schools: As the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools has noted, community impact rules “would make it difficult for schools that serve a high concentration of students of color to receive support, especially those schools that identify as culturally affirming.”

Read more

• View the proposed rule.
• Read a summary from the Penn Hill Group.
• Access a Flypaper blog post about the rule from the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools.
• Read commentary from the Wall Street Journal (subscription required) or National Review.