A regulatory review panel on Monday approved numerous new administrative rules imposed by Pennsylvania’s executive branch on charter schools, a move the institutions did not welcome.
Independent Regulatory Review Commission (IRRC) Chair George Bedwick, Commissioner Murray Ufberg and Commissioner Dennis Watson, all appointed to the board by Democratic state officials, voted in favor of the new regulations. Vice Chair John Mizner and Commissioner John Soroko, both Republican appointees, voted in opposition.
The new policies, which the Pennsylvania Department of Education (PDE) began developing in 2019 at the behest of Governor Tom Wolf (D), include more stringent requirements for accounting, employee health insurance and ethics reporting. The changes also contain provisions to ensure that enrollment at all charter schools is absolutely random, as state law requires.
“This is an incremental effort,” Ufberg said. “This is the first of hopefully many things that will be done to change the law and to change the way in which charter schools and other public schools compete and work with each other — recognizing clearly that they’re all public schools and we’re paying for all of them.”
Charter schools, public schools that are not administered by school districts and that often offer specialized curricula, came into existence in Pennsylvania as a result of 1997 law. Now, 179 of these non-district public institutions operate in the commonwealth, with about 170,000 students attending them. According to PCPCS, 40,000 students are on wait lists to gain enrollment to charters in Philadelphia alone.
To those concerned about Pennsylvania’s ability to offer alternative public education to families who seek it for their children, Wolf’s new regulations pose serious problems. The education committees of the state House of Representatives and the state Senate, both of which Republicans control, have issued letters to the PDE disapproving of the regulations, insisting that the new policies circumvent the legislative process. The Pennsylvania Coalition of Public Charter Schools (PCPCS) has spoken strongly against the regulations’ implementation.
Souderton Charter School Collaborative chief executive officer Jennifer Arevalo, speaking on behalf of PCPCS, told the commission before their vote that the PDE measures would make it more difficult for charter schools to establish themselves and function optimally. One provision, she said, would make it easier for school districts to prevent the appropriate level of funding to flow to the charter institutions when parents opt to send their children to them. She also said the rule mandating that the non-district schools provide healthcare benefits on the same basis that public schools do will often be onerous and confusing.
“The overall response from the charter-school community is negative towards this regulation,” she told the panel. “The concerns and suggestions of the community were largely left unaddressed and ignored by PDE. There was no collaboration or consensus reached with the charter-school community on this broad, sweeping and significant regulation, in our belief.”
Arevalo cited the nearly 23,000 new enrollees in charter schools during the 2020-21 school year as evidence that the schools served students well at a time when many district institutions had closed their buildings for much of the year as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Pennsylvania charter schools kept teaching during this pandemic. Our students’ welfare was kept at the forefront of our work,” she said. “The result of our collective efforts is seen in our growing enrollment numbers.”
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Bradley Vasoli is managing editor of The Pennsylvania Daily Star. Follow Brad on Twitter at @BVasoli. Email tips to [email protected].
