State Assembly Approves Charter Reform Bills

The State Assembly on Wednesday approved bills that would reform the way charter schools operate, sending a message to the Senate, which has not yet voted on its version of those bills.

Save Our Schools NJ has been lobbying both the Assembly and the Senate to give voters the right to decide whether they want charter schools in their districts and to make charters more accountable. Supporters said they felt as if they were getting closer to what they’ve been fighting for when the Assembly voted in favor of the voter approval bill (A3852) by 47-17 with 14 abstentions.

The other bill (A3356) which ensures that charter schools have financial, educational transparency and accountability and demographically represent their communities, was also approved. The Senate has not taken action on any of the bills.

Members of Save Our Schools NJ are “very happy that A 3852 and A3356  passed the Assembly with bi-partisan support,” said Julia Sass Rubin of Save Our Schools New Jersey. “As the Rutgers-Eagleton poll released yesterday confirmed, by a more than 3 to 1 margin, New Jersey residents want the local approval requirement to be in place for all new charter schools.  This is true for Republicans, Democrats and Independents.  We look forward to the Senate following the Assembly's lead and quickly passing these two bills to fix our state's broken charter school law."

"I was thrilled to see the charter reform legislation passed, particularly A 3852 which requires local approval for the establishment of a charter and A 3356 which ensures that charter schools are financially and educationally transparent and accountable and demographically represent their communities,'' said Darcie Cimarusti, of Save Our Schools NJ.

The organization hosted a rally at Bartle Elementary School in Highland Park on June 20, to vocalize their support of changes to the way charters are established.

About 300 people attended the rally, Cimarusti said, including Assemblyman Patrick Diegnan (D-18), chair of the Assembly Education Committee and a sponsor of one of the bills, Sen. Barbara Buono (D-18), and Assemblyman Peter Barnes (D-18).

The Highland Park community has been very involved with their own battle over a charter school.

A Hebrew charter has had its application denied twice to set up locally. Save Our Schools NJ and the local community "Inundated" the state with paperwork asking the Department of Education to reconsider, including a 70 page response, 600 personal statements of opposition to the school, and a 2,100 signature petition, Cimarusti said.

The organization does not have any more rallies planned at this time, but will be keeping an eye on the legislation.

"The next step is to see how quickly things can move along in the Senate,'' she said.

Last week, Sen. Richard Codey told a crowd of about 120 charter reform supporters at the Save Our Schools  the schools is a “watershed moment” in education.

Codey said if so-called “boutiques” like the  charter schools proposed for Livingston and Maplewood that would draw from neighboring districts such as Millburn and West Orange,  are approved, the “the domino effect would be mind boggling.”

He also urged the rally crowd to contact their senators, as well as the governor and the commissioner of education because he feared the bills would not get heard in the Senate in time and that the governor and the commissioner would have the final say on the current proposed Mandarin-immersion charter schools.

Districts are waiting on word about whether the state is going to approve those charters that could start pulling students and 90 percent of the per pupil costs away from districts as soon as the fall of 2012.

In response to the rally and the call for voter approval, Carlos Perez of the New Jersey Charter School Association released a statement saying, “Requiring a referendum on charter schools is not only bad public policy, it undermines the entire premise of a charter school. It’s a reaction to a challenge of the status quo by the entrenched education establishment to stop the thriving charter school movement in New Jersey in its tracks.”