asane

New CT scholarship designed to bring more charter schools to state

Online Niel November 12, 2024

His release North Star Fellowshipan initiative to help train school leaders in their efforts to grow more charter schools in the state, is the latest push for more school choice in Connecticut.

The scholarship was created out of a partnership between education organizations Latinos for Educational Advocacy and Diversityor LEAD, which has been a strong advocate in a the fight continues to open a charter school in Danbury and Confidence in the mindan Indianapolis-based nonprofit that has opened more than 50 charter schools in Indiana over the past 18 years.

“We need something that is transformational and disruptive,” said Jose Lucas Pimentel, CEO of LEAD, who noted that students of color, especially black and Latino students, keep falling behind their white peers in nearly every academic metric.

“We realized that 30 years have passed. Three decades of waiting for things, and changes, and conversations, and forums, and talking and nothing happened and things got worse,” Pimentel said. “We believe, unless someone suggests otherwise, that a charter school … can be a very creative way to empower leaders, like ourselves, to create a model that fits our communities.”

Creating more school choice options has proved to be a controversial issuewith proponents arguing that existing public schools do not serve the needs of all students, and opponents countering that charter schools take funding from the public school system, which is already stressed with limited resources.

Under the fellowship, four individuals — with a preference for Connecticut residents — will receive a full salary with benefits for up to two years as they receive “personalized coaching and support from a network of educational and executive leaders,” the joint with a cohort, I travel. and interact with other charter schools around the country.

The group will also have access to “expertise and feedback on school development, Connecticut charter approval, launch and local community engagement processes,” according to North Star’s website. Applications opened in late October and fellows are expected to be chosen in the spring.

“I think every community has different needs and we want to encourage everyone from all demographics to apply,” Pimentel said. “What we’re looking at in the fellowship are innovative schools that aren’t just traditional college prep — pretty much the same extra school — but things that prepare kids right out of high school to have life-changing jobs that can really transform communities, because we’ve just seen a stagnation, especially in the Latino community.”

The initiative may face challenges, as Connecticut is the only state in the country that requires legislative approval to create charter schools, according to the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools.

Despite an initial approval from the state board of education, some charter schools may be delayed or stalled in the legislative process if lawmakers decide not to fund them.

This has been the case for more than a few years in Danbury and recently in Middletown after both schools were left out from the state’s two-year budget during the 2023 legislative session, after hours of debate and some lawmakers voting across party lines. A new budget approval process begins in January for the next biennium.

In the past, Sen. Julie Kushner, D-Danbury, and the leadership of the Connecticut Education Association, the state’s largest teachers union, have been vocal opponents of expanding charter schools in Connecticut.

Kushner and CEA officials did not respond to recent requests for comment.

But during the 2023 legislative session, Kushner said he believes funding is the biggest barrier to traditional public schools and that a charter school would not be a solution for districts facing overcrowding or large populations of high-needs students .

“There are people like myself and others in the community who have decided that the best approach would be to address those overcrowding and underfunding issues by working toward improved funding for our traditional public schools,” Kushner told The Connecticut Mirror in an interview from March 2023. “This has been the focus of a lot of (our) opposition. We should be investing in finding good solutions for the entire student population, as opposed to a charter school solution that would really only address a very small percentage of the student population.”

In 2023 written testimony for a bill that would have removed the Legislature from the charter school approval process, the Connecticut Education Association also argued that funding for charter schools exceeded that provided to traditional public schools and “for some (charter schools) cannibalizing public school systems in urban neighborhoods (and beyond) is the goal.”

The billwhich made it out of two committees but ultimately failed, was opposed by Sen. Matt Lesser, D-Middletown, who had a charter school proposed in his district in 2023. His opposition to Middletown Charter Preparatory School drew strong criticism from members of the local community, including members of the NAACP.

Lesser, in an interview last week with the CT Mirror, said he doesn’t “see himself as a charter opponent” but that “there are different dynamics around the state.”

“I think there have been places where the community is looking for charters and they can work, but anywhere you want to change the environment, you should fundamentally listen to the community about their wants and needs,” Lesser said, adding that that there be continued efforts to strengthen traditional public schools and “ensure that everyone has the right to a world-class education.”

Lesser also said he doesn’t know much about the launch of North Star Fellowship, but expressed reservations about partnering with an out-of-state organization.

“The fact that they’re looking to bring in activists from out of state seems kind of like an extra effort to impose a top-down solution on Connecticut’s education system,” Lesser said.

But, Pimentel said the Indianapolis organization was “invited by an organization that is on the ground and that has deep roots in Connecticut.”

“Most of us were raised here. Some of us were born here, lived our whole lives here,” Pimentel said of his team. “They didn’t come to us, … we went to them and convinced them to come, because what they had and we didn’t have is the experience of running exchanges that work. We have the communities. We have leaders who want to be trained. … (Brotherhood) is the most original you can get.”

Pimentel said he hopes the scholarship will begin to “spread a conversation that needs to be had” where charter schools are not “opposed to traditional schools as they are now” and instead provide an avenue that promotes innovative curriculum.

“I’m not a supporter of all the charter schools and some of the legacy ones that have been there since the beginning,” Pimentel said.

“We are a proponent of new types of charter schools that are transformative. … I think the gap is going to widen and our people are going to be left behind, and instead of just sitting there and always asking someone else to do something about it, we wanted to pilot a kind of school that really satisfies the need of this population,” Pimentel added, referring to the state’s growing number of multilingual and other high-needs students.

Pimentel also said despite the challenges in Danbury and Middletown, not all charter schools are controversial, pointing to 2023 ENDORSEMENTS from Edmonds Cofield Preparatory Academy for Young Men in New Haven and Norwalk Charter School of Excellence in Norwalk.

“I think what the community is trying to do more is not try to get bogged down in the Danbury issue, because the Danbury issue has not been replicated everywhere. Most of the state has no problem with charter schools,” Pimentel said. “Sometimes we focus so much on place that it’s not accepted, but we see schools doing amazingly well and engaging very well with the ecosystem of schools in their districts, and that’s what we want.”

Association-anemone

Association-anemone

New CT scholarship designed to bring more charter schools to state

Online Niel

A gripping novel looks at the tragic plane crash whose victims included members of Manchester United football

Stock & Equity Market News, Economy & Finance News, Sensex, Nifty, Global Market, NSE, BSE Live IPO News

2 men injured in separate shootings in Northwest DC on Veterans Day

1-year-old dies after being left in vehicle in St. spots

New CT scholarship designed to bring more charter schools to state

Online Niel

You Might Also Like

A gripping novel looks at the tragic plane crash whose victims included members of Manchester United football

Stock & Equity Market News, Economy & Finance News, Sensex, Nifty, Global Market, NSE, BSE Live IPO News

2 men injured in separate shootings in Northwest DC on Veterans Day

1-year-old dies after being left in vehicle in St. spots