State rep: Charter schools need more financial oversight

Charlotte Talks on WFAE had a strong lineup on the panel this morning for a discussion of education in North Carolina.

Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools Superintendent Ann Clark was there, as was Gov. Pat McCrory's senior education adviser (Eric Guckian) and state Board of Education chairman Bill Cobey.

But I what most caught my ear were some comments from N.C. Rep. Craig Horn, a Republican from Weddington.

In response to questions about several Charlotte-area charter schools that had failed this year, Horn said that North Carolina needs to do a better job of making sure a proposed charter has its financial house in order.

"Charters need to be held to a higher level of accountability on the finance and governance side," he said.

He said that lawmakers had focused a lot on making sure charter school academics were up to snuff, but now needed to shift.

Here are a few more things that stood out:

• Clark said CMS would be hosting five to six "teacher voice sessions" over the coming months for teachers to talk about what would create a better working environment for them.

• Cobey said that the state will require virtual charter schools to provide children they accept with a computer and Internet access if the student doesn't have access.

• Cobey also said charter schools have struggled in Mecklenburg County because CMS has done a good job offering choices to families.

• Guckian said McCrory's goal is to move toward one electronic device per student in every N.C. school.

Listen to the conversation yourself at this link. It will also replay on the radio at 9 p.m.

Charter schools got letter grades, too. Did they outperform CMS?

Even though all the attention was on Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools when letter grades were handed out to each campus in North Carolina last week, charter schools got letter grades, too.

The results? It's very close (and probably debatable), but CMS appears to have done better than the county's charters.

(Go ahead and scroll to the bottom of this post if you want to look up your Mecklenburg County charter school's grade. Look up any school in the state here.)

Here's the grade distribution for Mecklenburg County charter schools:

• Four schools earned an A (27 percent)
• Two schools earned a B (13 percent)
• Three schools earned a C (20 percent)
• Four schools earned a D (27 percent)
• Two schools earned an F (13 percent)

CMS had 41 percent of its schools earn grades of A or B. That's one percentage point higher than the county's charter schools. A larger percentage of the county's charters also earned failing grades (7 percent in CMS).

Of course, there's a much larger percentage of "A" charter schools in the county than in CMS (27 percent versus 11 percent). Another caveat: Since there are a lot fewer charter schools in the county, that also can throw off the percentages.

Here's the grade distribution for charter schools statewide:

• 13 schools earned an A (10 percent)
• 37 schools earned a B (30 percent)
• 35 schools earned a C (28 percent)
• 22 schools earned a D (18 percent)
• 17 schools earned an F (14 percent)

Charter schools did much better than the state as a whole. Statewide, only 29 percent earned an A or a B.

I haven't heard much about this yet, but these figures are sure to reinflame debate on whether this charter school boom in the state is serving students well.

Here's the grade for every Mecklenburg County charter school. New schools don't have grades because they're based on last year's end-of-grade test scores.

School Name	Overall grade	Overall score	Reading grade	Math grade	Growth targets
Aristotle Preparatory Academy	D	50	C	F	Met
Charlotte Choice Charter	F	34	F	F	Met
Charlotte Secondary	C	63	C	C	Met
Community School of Davidson	A	87	B	B	Exceeded
Corvian Community School	B	78	B	B	Met
Crossroads Charter High	F	35			NotMet
Invest Collegiate	C	63	B	D	Met
Kennedy Charter	D	45	D	F	Exceeded
KIPP Charlotte	D	54	D	D	Exceeded
Lake Norman Charter	A	88	B	B	Exceeded
Metrolina Reg Scholars Academy	A	94	A	A	Met
Queen's Grant Community School	B	75	B	B	Exceeded
Socrates Academy	A	85	B	B	Met
Sugar Creek Charter	C	60	C	C	Exceeded
The Community Charter School	D	40	D	F	NotMet

Entrepreneur High making public appeal for survival

When the state Board of Education voted to revoke the charter of the all-but-defunct Entrepreneur High, it left only a small sliver of possibility for the school to ever reopen.

It's unclear whether the charter school's board is going to pursue it, but that hasn't stopped its leaders from launching a public opinion campaign in favor of the school.

This is the school that reported having only $14 in the bank while holding classes. Entrepreneur High ended up closing its doors last month. When the state board voted to revoke the charter, it afforded them 11 days to appeal the decision. By my count, that window expires this week.

The state Office of Charter Schools told me that they haven't received any word from the school on an appeal.

But it sure looks like the school's chairman, Robert Hillman, has been laying the groundwork. He set up a petition in favor of reopening the school that has gotten 300 signatures so far. He's also coordinated a letter-writing campaign that's filled my inbox with notes from parents and students at the school and targeted the state school board.

Here's an example:

Click to enlarge

Hillman has not responded to my requests for comment on whether the school will appeal.

TUESDAY AFTERNOON UPDATE: The school has appealed. Read the story here.

Ousted CEO vows to re-open failed Entrepreneur High

Hans Plotseneder

It's only been a few days since Entrepreneur High closed its doors, but its former CEO is already promising to restart the school without the board that fired him in Christmas Eve.

You'll recall that this school's board chairman told the state that it only had $14 in the bank last week. The charter school advisory board then took the first steps toward revoking its charter. With that hanging over the school's head, chairman Robert Hillman shut down operations Friday.

In an email sent to the media in the wee hours of Tuesday morning, Hans Peter Plotseneder -- also known as Dr. Plots -- insists that he is the only person who has the right to operate the school and lays out a plan to do so.

Plotseneder was fired Christmas Eve after a series of emergency board meetings in late December. Hillman wouldn't go into detail about what led up to the firing, but other school staff members said Plotseneder didn't do enough to take care of the school's students, leading them to withdraw from the school en masse.

Plotseneder's plan hinges on cutting Entrepreneur High's staff in half and relying on public money slated to arrive in February. He claims that he would receive $124,000 from the state and as much as $90,000 from the county.

Plotseneder then plans to receive $90,000 in grants, secure a bridge loan of $75,000, and sublease part of the building, an old Food Lion off Central Avenue. Ultimately, he wants to bring in a charter management organization to take over.

All that would certainly be difficult given that the remaining handful of students have transferred out of the school and that it faces forced closure in a matter of weeks.

The state Department of Public Instruction wasn't immediately able to say whether Entrepreneur High was still eligible to receive money from the state.

Charlotte-based charter advocate wants its schools to get lottery money

The Charlotte-based North Carolina Public Charter Schools Association has unveiled its list of legislative priorities for the year, and near the top of the list: Making sure charter schools get a slice of the lottery pie.

The North Carolina Education Lottery, which has been around since 2005, now gives a half a billion dollars per year to school systems. Mecklenburg County has gotten about $250 million in the past eight years. About $103 million has gone to pay for additional teachers in kindergarten through third grade. Another $92 million has gone to building projects.

Right now, charter schools only get lottery money when it gets commingled with  other sources of state revenue, says the N.C. Department of Public Instruction. They don't get their share of construction money.

Getting their share ranks near the top of the association's long list of priorities. Others run the gamut from allowing charter schools to charge fees that their local traditional school district does not, to making it easier for charter schools to obtain grants.

Why does CMS want to open charter schools?

Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools has had an uneven relationship with the growing number of charter schools in the area. But within the district's legislative agenda approved Wednesday is a request that CMS be able to open charter schools of their own.

Board member Ericka Ellis-Stewart asked the question: Why would the district want to do that?

Charter schools are public and operated with tax dollars. But they are exempt from a number of requirements that traditional public schools have. They're not required to provide transportation, for example, or meals.

CMS associate general counsel Jonathan Sink told the board that those things aren't what CMS is trying to avoid. What they want is the ability to tweak its calendar, or alter the curriculum in a way that's different from state mandates.

"We're looking for those pieces of educational innovation they were created to have," Sink said.

Board chairwoman Mary McCray said one concept they've looked at, by way of example, is an all-boys middle school.

The district has not yet come up with any specific programs or features it would want to have in a charter school should they be granted the ability to create one. It would require a major change to state law, Sink said.

Deputy Superintendent Ann Clark, who has assumed the duties of the top job after Heath Morrison resigned, said CMS will be bringing in Cindy Loe, former superintendent of schools in Fulton County, Ga., to help district leaders think through what they'd want to do.

CMS wants ability to start school three weeks earlier

Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools has outlined a draft of its legislative priorities for next year, and topping the list: The ability to start schools three weeks earlier.

That would allow schools to get their first semester final exams done before winter break, CMS associate general counsel Jonathan Sink explained to the school board Tuesday. The board is scheduled to vote on the agenda Nov. 19.

The district has nine priorities for state government, and three for local government. Here's a full list, with some explanations offered by Sink.

State priorities

1) Calendar flexibility. At a minimum, the ability to open three weeks earlier than currently allowed.

2) Raise teacher pay to national average.

3) Get the authority to have complete control over local funds.

4) Restore state-funded growth formula. This is a response to a controversial measure passed this summer.

5) Restore state funding for driver's education programs. Otherwise, allow the district to charge students the full cost of the program, or end the mandate that schools provide it.

6) Get charter-like flexibilities. CMS would also like the ability to start its own charter schools. We are asking GA to serve as chartering authority. Further, CMS wants a mandate that parents choose where they will enroll their students (in public schools or charters) by April 1. This would help eliminate discrepancies in enrollment expectations.

7) Oppose mandated inter-county and intra-county student transfer legislation.

8) Fully fund pre-K programs. CMS says it currently gets money for 20,000 students, but says another 40,000 could potentially be eligible.

9) Change the grading formula for the upcoming A-F school performance grades. Right now, the formula is weighted 80 percent toward proficiency and 20 percent toward growth. CMS wants an even split.

Local priorities

1) Restore city of Charlotte funding for school resource officers in CMS.

2) Establish a collaborative inter-governmental committee to identify, prioritize, plan and fund operating and capital budgets.

3) Establish a collaborative inter-governmental committee of planning experts to analyze the impacts of development on CMS.

Concrete Roses looking for money to pay teachers

Two weeks after Concrete Roses STEM Academy suddenly shut down, administrators at the charter school are trying to find a way to get more money to pay teachers for their last days of work.

WBTV, the Observer's news partner, reported earlier this week that school teachers and staff were growing worried that they won't ever see their final paychecks.

Now, an email to faculty and staff at Concrete Roses provided to the Observer lays out a few ways CEO Cedric Stone is hoping to secure the money to pay teachers.

First, some financial background: The school was originally authorized by the state to spend about $479,000 based on how many students were expected to attend. As enrollment dwindled and the school failed to turn in reports of how it spent money over the summer, the state Office of Charter Schools froze Concrete Roses' access to cash.

The school had already spent $285,170, much of it on payroll. But teachers and staff at the school say they had yet to receive paychecks for the last two weeks of classes before the school's funding was cut off.

Stone's email lays out three ways he hopes to get more money to pay them:

• Asking the Office of Charter Schools for permission to use some of the school's allotted money.
• Selling equipment and other assets the school still has.
• Asking Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools for money based on its enrollment through the first 20 days of class

All three methods face challenges. The Office of Charter Schools had already frozen Concrete Roses' account, and was going to be clawing back money anyway had the school stayed open.

The office also told me earlier this month that the assets of the school immediately become property of the state. And CMS is dealing with its own budget challenges related to charter school projections, and isn't going to want to give money to a school that's closed.

Stone's email ends with a warning for teachers to contact him with questions, and not to call the state or the news media.

"Allow me to leave you with a biblical verse that is very dear to to me," Stone writes. "There's a verse in the bible which states 'Never bear false witness against your neighbor!' Also, please ceast [sic] all use of the school email system immediately. Thanks in advance."

Stone didn't respond to a phone message left today.

Study: N.C. charters get better results for less money

Students in N.C. charter schools earned higher reading and math scores in 2011 than their counterparts in traditional public schools,  while the charter schools got less money for doing it,  according to a new study from the University of Arkansas Department of Education Reform.

The latest study,  "The Productivity of Public Charter Schools,"  piggybacks on an April report that compared per-pupil spending on charters and other public schools.  It compares scores on the 2011 National Assessment of Educational Progress eighth-grade reading and math exams for the two groups and links those to spending.

The report,  which looks at all states that had charter schools in 2011,  shows that N.C. charter school students averaged 13 points higher in reading and nine points higher in math than students in N.C. school districts.  Meanwhile,  charter schools averaged $8,277 per charter student compared with $9,999 per district student.  The study does a lot of other number-crunching but that's the gist:  Higher scores for less money.

Skeptics may assume that's because charter schools are working with the students who tend to score higher.  But according to this study,  the N.C. charter schools averaged slightly higher percentages of low-income and disabled students than public schools across the state.

Of course,  there are plenty of caveats to consider,  and the 43-page report explores many of them.  This is one year's performance  (a year that precedes North Carolina's charter school expansion)  for one grade level.  As the study notes,  those students may have experienced a mix of charter and traditional public schooling  (and,  for that matter,  private and home-schooling),  all of which contributes to eighth-grade scores. The report uses that data to extrapolate a  "return on investment"  based on lifetime earnings.  I'm skeptical of that technique,  which is used to turn small data points into huge savings by any number of educational groups,  including traditional public schools.

The researchers note that the overall analysis leads to one clear national finding:  "Charter schools tend to exhibit more productivity than traditional public schools."

You can bet that will come up as North Carolina debates how to balance its investment in various forms of public education.

Baker

Update: A reader steered me to a University of Colorado National Education Policy Center review of the April report on charter inequities. Reviewer Bruce Baker of Rutgers University says the University of Arkansas study  "displays complete lack of understanding of intergovernmental fiscal relationships."  For instance,  he writes,  money that is passed through school districts for distribution to charters is counted as school district revenue in per-pupil calculations  (CMS passed through about $23 million in 2013).

"In addition, the report suffers from alarmingly vague documentation regarding data sources and methodologies, and it constructs entirely inappropriate comparisons of student population characteristics,"  Baker writes.  "Simply put, the findings and conclusions of the study
are not valid or useful."

As some of you have noted,  and as I pointed out in the post about the April report,  the University of Arkansas research is part of the university's School Choice Demonstration Project,  which is funded by the Walton Family Foundation.

Read more here: http://obsyourschools.blogspot.com/search?q=+university+arkansas+charter#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://obsyourschools.blogspot.com/2014/05/report-nc-charter-schools-dont-get-fair.html#storylink=cpy

Another round of the miracle-gains game

While reporting a recent article on Sugar Creek Charter School's plans to add high school, I was dismayed to see the test-score reporting by UNC Charlotte's Urban Education Collaborative.  A 37-page report from the collaborative,  which is part of the College of Education,  bases its claims for  "extraordinary outcomes in public education"  on the school's proficiency gains between 2008 and 2012.

Source: SchoolwiseCharlotte.org

Not surprisingly, you don't see that number plunge to 40 percent in 2013.  And if the researchers had included that shocker,  they'd certainly have explained that North Carolina introduced new exams with a higher bar for passing.  They'd have noted that most schools across the state saw pass rates plummet,  with the biggest drop among schools such as Sugar Creek that serve mostly low-income and minority students.

Yet nowhere do these researchers, who are part of a partnership with Sugar Creek known as Schoolwise,  explain that scores also plunged statewide in 2008,  when North Carolina introduced a tougher reading exam. And that they rose sharply in 2009,  when the state started giving students a second chance to pass.  The curve depicted for Sugar Creek is common to most N.C. schools  --  again,  with the biggest plunge-and-rise among schools serving kids who traditionally struggle to reach grade level.

I've called Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools out on playing the same game in the past.  I shudder to think how many national experts believe schools and programs across our state are successful based on big gains since 2008.  Charts like this are a great marketing tool,  if not exactly a testament to integrity in reporting.

When testing changes,  year-to-year comparisons carry little meaning.  At that point,  the best bet is to see how a given school,  district or group of schools compares with similar students.  As I noted in my article,  such comparisons indicate Sugar Creek is doing well compared with state and CMS averages,  though the latest numbers are unlikely to inspire breathless praise. (For careful readers,  the numbers I cite,  from N.C. school report cards,  represent the percent of students who passed both reading and math tests;  that's different from the composite score based on reading,  math and science exams.  Both are legitimate ways to measure proficiency.)

CMS used to do a good job of this when officials evaluated programs such as strategic staffing.  The studies were sometimes buried online,  but they existed.  Unfortunately,  a reader recently pointed out to me that the CMS research link,  which I'd kept in the rail at the right of this blog,  is now dead.  If there's a new one I can't find it.

Lewis

Chance Lewis,  director of the Urban Education Collaborative,  says he's working on just such a comparison for Sugar Creek,  which is the collaborative's partner.  He and I agree that the challenge is figuring out the fairest comparison for the charter school,  which serves grades K-8.  Do you look at CMS neighborhood schools or at magnets?  Focus only on other K-8 schools,  or on elementaries and middle schools?  Do categories such as "African American" and "economically disadvantaged" give a true apples-to-apples look?

Results for 2014 are due out later this summer.  We already know they'll be up,  because the state changed the scoring system to allow more students to pass.  With all the uncertainty about Common Core,  it's hard to tell what we'll get in coming years.  Here's my forecast:  By 2017,  we're going to see lots of charts showing that schools have made amazing gains since 2013.

Mission Impossible: Keep up with General Assembly

Last summer I kicked myself for paying too little attention to the legislative session.  Like many others, I struggled to figure out changes to tenure,  teacher pay,  charter school rules and other developments in public education after lawmakers had gone home and everything was a done deal.

This year I vowed to make sure readers knew about education proposals in time to react.  But I'm no longer sure that's possible.

I set out with good intentions,  dutifully trying to keep up with the education bills being introduced.

In June I spent a week in Raleigh covering the General Assembly.  Mostly I learned that not being there isn't as big a disadvantage as I'd thought.  The legislative web site has a lot of great information,  including audio links to key discussions.  After scurrying around to grab a seat in the chambers,  I discovered that the more experienced political reporters often stayed in the press room following the discussions on audio.

So it's great that we can do that from Charlotte.  But I've concluded that the volume and complexity of this system makes it nearly impossible to keep up,  even in this ostensibly short and simple off-year session.

A search for education bills in the 2013-14 session gets 532 results.  I'm pretty sure that only those in the lighter typeface are active in 2014,  but that's still a long list.

Sometimes the content changes dramatically as it moves through the system.  House Bill 1224,  for instance,  began life in May as  "an act to modify the job maintenance and capital development fund provisions."  But when it went to the Senate Finance Committee last week it morphed into a bill that could kill the Mecklenburg County commissioners' plan to hold a referendum on a sales-tax hike to boost Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools salaries.

I've paid especially close attention to Senate Bill 793,  which has been through five versions, 11 proposed amendments and 39 actions since it was introduced in May.  It's the one that,  depending on the day,  either ensures that charter schools will follow the same personnel disclosure and privacy laws as other public schools,  removes all references to said topic or blocks disclosure of charter school employees' names.  (Meanwhile,  the Observer finally completed the database of Charlotte-area salaries last week,  when Lincoln Charter provided its information.)

Because I was dogging that bill,  Rep. Charles Jeter, R-Mecklenburg,  realized that his protect-the-names amendment has consequences far beyond his intentions.  He says he asked the conference committee to delete the amendment he got the House to pass.  Best I can tell,  there's been no action since that committee was created July 1.  What will emerge is anyone's guess.  Meanwhile,  a search for charter school bills turns up 47 other options to keep track of.

In my efforts to serve as a better watchdog,  I've ended up feeling like a mutt trying to chase a forest full of squirrels.  Even with the state's press corps doing their best,  I can't help wondering what  surprises may emerge after the last gavel bangs.  (Public Schools First NC is doing the best job I've seen of tracking education proposals.  Last week's summary filled nine pages.)

I voiced my frustration to Tom Tate,  the CMS board's senior member,  when we were talking about something else.

"I don't know how anyone is keeping up with it at this point,"  Tate sympathized.  "Even the legislators themselves."

Summer student shuffle gets serious

This week's word that Carolina STEM charter school doesn't have enough students to open this year illustrates a challenge facing Charlotte-area schools and families:  More choice brings more uncertainty.

The state approved 11 new charter schools to serve about 3,200 Mecklenburg and Cabarrus county students in 2014-15.  A court cleared the way for the Opportunity Scholarship program to proceed,  offering low-income families tax-funded scholarships to switch from public to private schools. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools countered with more magnets and other options.

This spring,  families interested in a change could put their kids' names in for various schools, see where they got in and make a choice. Now,  with a little less than six weeks remaining until most students go back to school,  everyone's trying to figure out what those choices are.

For the folks who have spent the last four years trying to make Carolina STEM Academy a reality,  that meant realizing that 170 applications translated to only 66 confirmed enrollments,  according to a letter sent to families and posted on the school's website.  That was 40 to 60 short of what the board believed was necessary to open,  so rather than push things to the wire they called it quits for this year.

Carolina STEM was the second Charlotte-area charter school to drop out of the 2014 opening;  Stewart Creek High had earlier gotten a one-year deferral because of problems getting its building ready.  The question is whether it will be the last.  Many are still recruiting students,  working on facilities and holding information sessions.  The state is monitoring readiness of the remaining schools,  and could defer or revoke charters for those that don't seem to be set for a successful opening.

CMS,  meanwhile,  is trying to staff its schools appropriately.  Last year the district underestimated charter growth and overestimated its own enrollment.  This year planners project that most of the county's enrollment growth will be in charters.  We can only hope that the state's PowerSchool data system works better this year,  allowing everyone timely information about where students land.

McCoy

In an unrelated nugget,  Wake County Schools Public Relations Director Renee McCoy left that job Tuesday and word is she's coming to CMS,  presumably to fill the gap left by Tahira Stalberte's departure for Union County Schools.  According to her LinkedIn profile, she's a former TV journalist who has also done PR for the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services.

Sugar Creek Charter salaries posted

We've updated the charter school salary database to include employees of Sugar Creek Charter School, leaving Lincoln Charter School as the only school that hasn't provided names  (Chief Administrator Dave Machado has said his school is working on that list).

The Observer requested salary information from 22 Charlotte-area charter schools in March,  sparking a prolonged debate over disclosure that continues to work its way through the General Assembly.

Sugar Creek students at school choice rally with Gov. McCrory

I don't think the Sugar Creek names are  "stop the press"  news.  The school had already provided details for its top administrators,  withholding names of lower-ranking employees.

But I do think full disclosure is important.  As Rep. Charles Jeter learned when he introduced an amendment designed to block the Observer and other media from publishing salary lists for charter schools  --  the same kind of lists that have been published for employees of school districts and other public bodies for years  --  when you start trying to pull some information from public scrutiny you can create more problems than you solve.

If a broader discussion of salary discussion loops around in the coming year,  as Jeter has suggested,  I hope the people who want to limit public access to personnel data will be challenged to provide specific,  first-hand information on the harm that disclosure causes.  We heard dire predictions when we first posted Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools salaries in 2008.  I'm well aware that many individuals don't like seeing their salaries posted,  but I have gotten no reports that it disrupted public education.

Likewise,  some charter school officials and advocates said disclosure of merit-based salaries would lead to such turmoil on the faculty that students would suffer.  But since we posted the salaries in May,  along with articles analyzing teacher pay and administrator salaries in charters and CMS,  no one has contacted me or Observer editors to say their school fell apart.  Some charter directors have told me the articles helped dispel public myths about extravagant pay at their schools.

I hope any discussion will be precise about terms, too.  During debate over Jeter's amendment,  which the House approved,  he referred to the need to prevent disclosure of merit pay.  As I've noted before,  merit pay,  which is used in some charter and traditional public schools,  should make sense,  even if there's room to debate the results.  Market pay can be random. As one of my professors used to say,  the market is amoral.  The teacher in the next classroom may earn significantly more for a number of reasons that have nothing to do with fairness or ability.  That may be disturbing for teachers to discover,  but I suspect the real discomfort falls on the administrators who have to explain it.

Jeter's charter-bill quotes attributed to wrong man

I owe Rep. David Lewis, R-Hartnett, an apology.

My recent front-page article on a charter-bill amendment introduced by Rep. Charles Jeter and a follow-up blog post  (now revised)  indicated that Lewis had spoken in favor of that amendment. I just learned from the Associated Press that the comments attributed to Lewis referring to a hostile work environment were in fact made by Jeter, a Mecklenburg Republican.

Lewis

Lewis emailed me to say the quotes were wrong.

"While I,  along with 64 other members,  did vote for the Amendment, I have never commented publicly on the subject,"  he wrote.  "I do agree largely with Rep. Jeter's argument that the public is not harmed by withholding the charter teacher's name while fully disclosing everything else.  I only bring this to your attention because I am proud of my efforts to increase transparency whenever possible and this article, which has been picked up by periodicals statewide, implies I vocally supported and helped carry the amendment which seems to be contrary to that effort."

I've been covering issues related to charter school salaries and compliance with the state's Public Records Law since March.  When political reporter Jim Morrill told me about the amendment,  I checked the legislative records,  did a phone interview with Jeter and wrote the story.  I added quotes from the AP article,  believing they had a second voice speaking strongly to the issue.  After I forwarded Lewis'  email to the AP, they confirmed that Jeter's remarks had been erroneously attributed to Lewis,  who did not take part in the debate.

Lewis forwarded a 17-minute audio clip of the debate,  which provided some interesting details.  Several representatives,  including Jeter and Rep. Rob Bryan,  R-Mecklenburg,  said they'd like to see future discussion of removing even more personnel information from public view,  either for charter employees and/or for teachers in traditional public schools.  Jeter's argument is that salary rosters such as the Observer publishes for employees of school districts,  public universities,  city,  state and county governments create strife when the same is done for charter schools because charter teachers are not on the state pay scale.  In charter schools  --  and in many Charlotte-Mecklenburg schools that are involved in merit pay programs  --  teachers with similar experience and credentials may earn different salaries.

In introducing the amendment,  which simply states that names of charter school employees are not subject to public disclosure,  Jeter said that  "Charter school teachers are not state employees.  Charter school teachers do not get to participate in the state pension plan."

Two legislators noted that charter boards actually decide whether their employees participate.  One of them suggested  "displacing"  the amendment to get clarification,  but Jeter declined,  saying the pension issue is not critical.  "Teachers' names should not have to be published for ridicule,"  he said.

Cunningham

Two Democratic women,  Rep. Carla Cunningham of Mecklenburg and Rep. Verla Insko of Orange,  suggested that disclosing pay by name reveals whether female teachers are being paid equally for equal work.  Jeter responded that names are not always gender-specific.  Bryan added that  "just like in private business,  people bring discrimination claims all the time and that information can be discovered,  so I think that's really a non-issue." 

It's now up to the Senate and House to reconcile their different versions of the charter bill,  which addresses several issues other than disclosure of names.  Gov. Pat McCrory has threatened to veto the whole bill if the amendment shielding names remains.

However it's resolved,  it looks like we can expect more efforts next year to scale back the amount of public information that's subject to public review.

Charter name ban: Think it through

A parent recently emailed me with concerns about a soon-to-open charter school in Charlotte.  She's considering enrolling her child,  she said,  so she has been asking questions about staffing,  attending board meetings and researching the new director.  Material she found from the two charter schools where that director worked previously led her to doubt whether the new school's board had made a wise hire and accurately represented the director's experience.

I'm not including specifics because I haven't had time to verify this information.  But my first step was obvious:  Email the two N.C. charter schools where the director worked and ask for details of her work history,  including her titles, dates of employment and whether she resigned or was dismissed.

Under a charter bill passed by the state Senate on June 17,  that information would be indisputably a matter of public record.

Under the amended version the House passed last week,  that's far less clear.

Jeter

There's no indication that Rep. Charles Jeter,  the Mecklenburg Republican and charter school parent who introduced the amendment,  and the 64 other House members who voted for the amendment want to block parents and reporters from getting this kind of information.  Instead,  Jeter said he wants to stop newspapers from requesting and publishing names and salaries of charter school administrators,  teachers and other staff,  as the Observer and at least one other N.C. newspaper have done recently.

But the amendment doesn't limit itself to certain types of requests or certain categories of employees.  It simply says that names of charter school employees  "shall not be open to inspection,"  apparently putting names into the same category of confidentiality as job evaluations.

I asked public records and personnel experts at the UNC Chapel Hill School of Government how this might play out.

"It appears to prohibit the release of the name of an employee,  presumably for any purpose. That seems to be a broader limitation than what might have been intended,"  said Professor and Associate Dean Freyda Bluestein,  after reading the amendment and consulting with a colleague.

Most charter schools name their administrators on their web sites,  and some name their full faculty.  Employees often make presentations or are included in announcements at charter school board meetings,  which are public and whose minutes become public records.  Would this kind of disclosure be forbidden?

"It seems to me that it might prohibit the release of the name for any purpose, as I mention in my email,"  Bluestein responded.

The bill that passed the Senate on three readings and the House on the first two puts charter school employees under the same personnel privacy protections and disclosure requirements as other public schools.  That spells out 11 personnel items that must be made public for each employee,  including name, employment date, terms of contract, current position, salary  (including benefits,  incentives and bonuses) and information about promotions, demotions, transfers and disciplinary actions.

The amended version that passed the House on third reading removes names from that list.

That creates another puzzler:  If someone  --  whether a journalist,  parent or prospective employer   --  requests the public information for an individual employee by name,  can the school release it?  And if so,  are they required to do so?

"I suppose technically,  if you somehow had the list of names already and asked for their salaries, (or any other type of information that is public under that statute),  they might be required to provide the salaries and other information since this would not involve the school actually making the names open to inspection (since they were provided in the request),"  said Bluestein.  "I'm not sure exactly how this would work as a practical matter,  if enacted."

Bear in mind that this legislation came about because of confusion about what the law requires.  Even charter leaders who said they thought public disclosure was appropriate hesitated to release information in the face of mixed messages from state staff.  If something as basic as publicly naming the director of your school is potentially breaking the law,  I predict some of the public money going to charter schools is going to be spent on legal advice.

Here's hoping that as the Senate and House reconcile the two versions of the bill,  they think this through carefully.

Salaries and opportunities: A wrap-up

When I reported on Superintendent Heath Morrison's new administrative appointments Tuesday night,  Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools didn't have salary information available for the new jobs in central administration.

They are:  $160,000 a year for Chief Academic Officer Brian Schultz;  $126,900 for Akeshia Craven-Howell,  assistant superintendent of school options,  innovation and design;  and $111,000 for Michele Mason,  executive director of leadership.  They join two new zone superintendents Morrison added earlier this month,  as he revamps administration to provide better support for schools.

Following up on Wednesday's post about Opportunity Culture in Project LIFT,  the consultants from Public Impact who are leading that effort sent me a link to their own blog projecting the benefits for 31 schools around the nation that piloted Opportunity Culture jobs last year.  That would include the four in CMS' Project LIFT.

You might wonder how these numbers can be so striking  --  for instance,  $290,000 to $900,000 per teacher in additional lifetime pay  --   when Project LIFT Zone Superintendent Denise Watts says the jobs are changing and evolving so much that it's hard to nail down local specifics.  The Public Impact report takes 2013-14 data and extrapolates on the assumption that all schools  "implement their models fully over three years."  Watts' report indicates it may be tough to forecast what will happen in those three years.  After Tuesday night's meeting, she checked on the status of the 19 who took opportunity culture jobs last year. Ten will continue in those jobs,  five will be in different opportunity culture jobs,  three lost those jobs when their schools redesigned the plans and one retired.

Stam

Finally,  the bill that would clarify beyond question that charter school salaries are subject to public disclosure is supposed to get a final House vote today.  Who would have guessed it would generate a report on incest and pedophilia from Rep. Paul Stam?

Meanwhile,  the two Charlotte holdouts to the Observer's salary request have said they'll provide the information.  Sugar Creek has already sent their full list and Lincoln Charter's director says that school's is coming soon.  We'll update the charter school database as soon as Lincoln's information arrives.  I asked both school leaders how much they paid lawyer Richard Vinroot to fight disclosure;  both said they have yet to receive the bill.

Update:  Salaries for nine districts surrounding Mecklenburg County went online today.  Thanks to database reporter Gavin Off for rounding up that information.

In Nashville, a different way to do charters

Charlotte-Mecklenburg Superintendent Heath Morrison often talks about charter schools authorized by school districts,  an arrangement that isn't allowed in North Carolina.  I recently got a chance to see that model in action at Cameron College Prep,  a charter authorized by Metro Nashville Public Schools to take over a failing district school.

The tour was part of the recent Education Writers Association national seminar,  and it gave us a chance to see something I hadn't heard of before:  A charter school with an attendance zone,  and one that's being phased in as the traditional public school phases out.

Cameron College Prep

Some background:  Cameron began life as an all-black high school in south Nashville in the 1930s.  In recent decades the neighborhood and the school changed.  Cameron Middle School  (that's grades 5-8 in Nashville)  had an international population and a history of low academic performance when the district's Office of Innovation asked for takeover proposals in 2010.  The district chose the plan presented by LEAD Academy, a charter school authorized by MNPS.

Charter leaders had a year to get to know the community and try to build support for the new approach,  which involves a heavy emphasis on getting all student ready for college.  College banners and motivational slogans line the halls  (a common approach with college-prep charters I've seen).

Mitchell

Cameron College Prep opened with fifth-graders only,  while grades 6-8 attended Cameron Middle.  By the time we visited in May, the third year of the phase-in,  grades 5-7 were in the charter school while only the eighth-graders remained in the MNPS school. Sharing the building can be awkward,  Shaka Mitchell of LEAD acknowledged:  "It works like you getting a roommate you didn't ask for."  But it also brought vital support for the fledgling charter.  Like N.C. charters,  those in Tennessee don't get money for busing or buildings.  But the district is providing both,  though LEAD will have to take over expenses for the aging school once the last district students leave.  "That's going to hit our books,  and that's pretty serious,"  Mitchell said.

Useted

Cameron Middle teacher had options as their grades phased out:  They could apply to stay as charter faculty or be given first crack at other jobs in the district.  As LEAD employees,  they lose tenure,  make a little more money and work more days during the school year.  Most opted to stay with the district,  but the handful who applied with LEAD were hired,  LEAD officials told us.  Because of the extra days and hours,  "they're getting paid less on an hourly basis,"  Chief Operating Officer Adrienne Useted said.

The original LEAD school,  which is also a middle school,  took students by application,  as most charters do.  Because of the unique partnership with the school district,  students who live in the Cameron zone automatically go to the charter school unless they apply for another district or charter option.  In other words,  it's a charter neighborhood school.

Danhausen

School officials say that's a mixed blessing.  Families associate Cameron College Prep with a system they don't trust,  said school director Tait Danhausen,  and motivating them to get involved has been a challenge.  He said his biggest surprise with the school has been the deep distrust of educators that seems to be a part of generational poverty in Nashville.

The school and its relationship with the district is still evolving.  LEAD now has six schools in Nashville,  including one that's part of the Tennessee Achievement School District,  which was created to take over the state's lowest-performing schools and come up with new strategies for them.

Cameron College Prep has  "done OK"  so far,  MNPS school board member Will Pinkston said during a separate session on authorizing charter schools  (see an 8-minute video of that panel here).

"They're not knocking it out of the park,"  Pinkston said.  "They're good people trying hard,  but it's not outperforming other charters or district schools."

Pinkston and MMPS spokesman Joe Bass steered me to this school rating chart,  which also strikes me as something that CMS and/or North Carolina might want to look at.  It provides an easy-to-scan comparison of test results  (growth and proficiency) and student and teacher survey results for Nashville district and charter schools.  It's not as simplistic as the letter grades North Carolina plans to assign all schools,  but easier to use as a comparison point than the state's detailed school report cards.

Morrison has talked about creating something along these lines for CMS since his arrival two years ago,  but with the data delays and glitches created by the conversion to PowerSchool,  nothing has appeared yet.  Presumably,  anything created by CMS would not include charter schools because they do not report to or have any formal relationship with the district.

2014 charter schools: Ready or not?

About half the 27 N.C. charter schools that got approval to open in August already have plenty of students signed up,  but some of the rest are struggling,  according to a recent report to the N.C. Charter School Advisory Board.

All schools must file a "ready to open" report by the end of May; the goal is to ensure that all have enrollment, buildings and academic plans lined up to be ready for a solid August opening. But the April status report indicates some have a long way to go in the final stretch.  (Go here and click "Ready to Open Report" for details.)

Thirteen schools already had at least 90 percent of their projected enrollment by the end of April,  the report indicates.  Those include Bradford Preparatory School  (1,531 applications for 404 seats),  Pioneer Springs Community School  (323 applications for 176 seats),  Thunderbird Preparatory School  (798 applications for 488 seats)  and United Community School  (181 applications for 216 seats)  in the Charlotte area.  United, Bradford and Pioneer Springs also had leases signed as of the last report.

Charlotte-area schools in the yellow zone were Carolina STEM Academy  (76 percent full,  lease signed) and  Entrepreneur High (73 percent full,  no lease).

Those below 60 percent at the end of April were ACE Academy  (54 percent, lease signed), Charlotte Learning Academy (34 percent,  no lease),  Concrete Roses STEM Academy  (49 percent,  no lease) and Commonwealth High (no lease and only eight students signed up for 224 spots).  Stewart Creek High,  operated by the same management company as Commonwealth and catering to the same at-risk high school crowd,  is one of two schools statewide that has requested permission to delay a year.

Teacher pay, taxes and charters: What's on table

Rep. Bill Brawley, a Matthews Republican,  wants to order counties to levy a 1-cent property tax hike for teacher raises.

Hartsell

Sen. Fletcher Hartsell, a Concord Republican,  wants to let school districts get involved in authorizing charter schools.

And Reps. Becky Carney and Beverly Earle, Democrats from Charlotte, are among a group that wants to tighten state supervision of charter schools.

Welcome to the 2014 legislative session,  which is supposed to be relatively short and simple.

Ha.

Last year's long session brought plenty of surprises in public education.  I'm beginning to see why so many of us got caught off guard.  I've trolled through the list of bills filed in the first two weeks and come up with this list.  I don't pretend to understand them all,  let alone feel confident about which stand a chance and which are DOA.

In the spirit of crowdsourcing,  I'm linking everyone up and eager to hear thoughts. (HB signifies a House bill, SB a Senate bill.)

Brawley

Teacher pay: SB 833 and HB 1186 direct the state Board of Education to come up with a performance pay plan for educators to roll out in 2016-17. SB 787, which I reported on recently, requires that at least 51 percent of the state allocation for K-12 education go toward classroom teachers. HB 1174 extends the cutoff date to qualify for additional pay based on earning a master's degree. And Brawley's HB 1177 calls for the additional 1-cent property tax for teacher raises.

Tenure:  HB 1199 would restore career status, commonly known as tenure,  after last summer's decision to phase it out by 2018.  A Wake County judge recently ruled that decision unconstitutional.

Common Core:  SB 812 and HB 1061 call for rejecting the Common Core standards and creating a new study commission to create standards specific to North Carolina.

Carney

Online classes:  SB 748 and HB 1039 provide a tuition waiver for private-school students to take N.C. Virtual Public School courses.

Charter schools:  SB 754 and HB 1041 would allow school districts and public universities to grant preliminary approval for charter schools, with the final decisions continuing to rest with the state Board of Education. HB 1085 strengthens supervision of charter schools. SB 752, HB 1042 and SB 793 set up an appeal process for charter applicants rejected by the state advisory board. SB 793 also raises the application fee to $1,000 and clarifies that charter schools are subject to the same public records law, including disclosure of salaries, as other public bodies. HB 1084 would establish an alternative accountability system for charter schools that serve large percentages of students with disabilities.

Vouchers:  HB 1075 would repeal the Opportunity Scholarship program and restore the $10 million set aside for it to public schools.

Earle

School calendar:  HB 1049 would give local districts more flexibility in deciding when to start and stop the school year.

Money:  HB 1107 would require the state to spend specific percentages of lottery money on school construction.  SB 789 would provide extra money for  "geographically sparse"  small school districts. (That wouldn't seem to affect the Charlotte area,  unless it reduced the money available for bigger districts.)  HB 1119 would provide a tax credit for teachers who spend their own money on classroom supplies.  HB 1063 would appropriate $340,000 to restore the teacher cadet program for high school students.

Safety: HB 1062 and SB 770 would require public schools to provide keys and schematic diagrams to law enforcement.

Education data:  SB 806 and HB 1150 deal with data for K-12 and higher education, but darned if I can figure out what these bills mean. SB815 deals with privacy of student records.

Do charters play on a level field?

When I wrote about the latest round of charter school approvals,  reader Carrie Diane posted a series of questions about charter schools.   "Before I get anyone upset, I'm just asking questions here because I honestly do not know the answers,"  she began.

That's a challenge. Discussion of the pros and cons of charter schools has been going on for more than a decade in North Carolina.  Some people have strong views and come out sniping.  Meanwhile,  others are just entering the conversation and get frustrated when they read articles that don't include all the background.

This reader posed some good questions that require more than an online comment section to answer.  So here's my stab at them,  and I'm sure the rest of you will jump in.

First:  When I read that charter schools get on average $2,000 less than public schools my first thought was that isn't that supposed to be because they are marketed as being more effective and efficient than a public school? I realize it is less money, but I was truly thinking that wasn't that part of the allure of creating charter schools? 

I wasn't covering education when the state launched charters in the 1990s,  but my understanding is that rather than saying  "Let's see if we can do the same job with less money,"  the founders wanted to see if charter operators could do a better job with roughly the same money.  The most recent study I've seen pegs the gap at just over $1,700,  but most of that comes from the fact that counties don't have to provide money for facilities, as they do for district schools.  The system is set up to give charter schools the same per-pupil state allotment for operating costs that all other public schools get on average,  and requires counties to do the same.  Of course,  needs and spending vary dramatically from school to school,  whether they're charters or traditional.

Next: Are we comparing apples and oranges when it comes to testing and measuring success? My impression is that charter schools do not have to follow the same EOG testing measures and Read to Achieve that a public school does. 

Charter schools have to give the same state exams and report the same results.  Check state school report cards (where you can also find per-pupil spending reports) or click the School Data links at the right of this column to see mapped results for Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools and Mecklenburg charter schools.  Charter schools get more flexibility under Read to Achieve to deal with third-graders who fall short on reading skills.  But unlike district schools,  charter schools face closure for repeated poor performance on state exams.

And this: Are charter schools and public schools working along the same guidelines when it comes to teacher qualifications? 

No.  All teachers in traditional public schools must be licensed,  but charters can fill up to 50 percent of their teaching spots with unlicensed teachers.

And finally,  Carrie Diane questioned why charter schools don't have to offer busing and free lunches and how that affects serving low-income students.

This one gets complicated.  Charter schools have to have plans to ensure that no student is denied admission because of transportation or meals.  But that doesn't have to mean busing and cafeterias.  Some charters cover transportation by helping families connect for car pools and expect families to send or buy lunches.  They say they'll provide individual meal assistance and do what it takes to ensure that students from low-income families can get to school.  But some say disadvantaged families don't apply to charter schools that make it difficult.

Advantage charters?  Well,  not so fast.  CMS has a large and expanding menu of magnets and other opt-in schools with limited transportation.  And those schools often set admission requirements,  which most charters can't do.  Finally,  the biggest factor in school demographics is location.  Schools in east and west Charlotte tend to have high poverty levels and low white enrollment,  whether they're charters or district schools.  Those in Mecklenburg's suburbs and surrounding counties generally have much lower poverty levels and more white students,  regardless of who's running them.

So no,  charters and districts aren't playing on a level field.  But it's not always clear who's got the edge.