Tagged: charter schools

North Carolina has 107 charter schools and dozens more are looking to open in the next couple of years.  State lawmakers today are considering a bill that would change the application process and oversight of these schools.     

The number of applications to open charter schools has jumped significantly since the charter school cap was lifted in 2011.  There used to be a couple dozen applications per year.  This year 156 groups plan to apply and that means a whole lot of work for the people who review them. 

Joel Medley is in charge of the office that oversees all of the state’s charter schools.  This year, he expected to hear from a lot of groups wanting to open schools, but not quite this many. 

Charter schools are supposed to offer a free, independent alternative to traditional public schools. North Carolina has just over 100 of them, and the state board of education is expected to approve 25 more at its February meeting.

North Carolina is getting ready for a new breed of charter school.  They’re virtual schools, where students do all or most of their work online.  The state board of education Thursday is set to approve new policies to guide these schools.  They include paying the schools less per student than a regular charter and capping the student to teacher ratio.

North Carolina has no online charter schools, but it’s had a lot of interest in opening one.  That’s got the state board of education wondering how to deal with schools that operate so differently from traditional schools.