A r c h i v e d  I n f o r m a t i o n

Autonomy

Charter schools are a means of granting schools freedom from district rules and regulations in order to stimulate innovation in educating students. The degree of autonomy granted to charter schools, however, varies tremendously among states. All charter school statutes include language indicating that certain provisions concerning health, safety, civil rights and disability rights cannot be waived.

The degree of autonomy provided to charter schools must be weighed against accountability, because the two are interrelated. By waiving regulations automatically, sponsors may lose the ability to exert control until the charter school becomes eligible for renewal. Charters can be revoked, but only for specific transgressions (see "Oversight, Renewal and Revocation" section of this document).

The following areas should be considered when granting waivers of district and state regulations to charter schools.

Considerations:

Overall Waivers

A few states grant charter schools "superwaivers," automatically freeing the schools from virtually all district and state regulations. Some charter schools are required to explicitly request waivers in the charter school petition, often accompanied by a mandated explanation for the waiver. More commonly, full waivers are granted.

Consider the following options:

1. Charter schools should be granted an automatic waiver for all regulations (except health, safety, etc.).

• A "superwaiver" will create the conditions needed for charter schools to be innovative.

• A "superwaiver" will help stimulate teachers who assume there are specific policies blocking their attempts to be innovative.

• Since charter schools are held accountable through testing, audits and the renewal process, additional regulations are not necessary to ensure charter schools will perform adequately.

2. Charter schools should define and discuss all waivers in its petition.

• Waivers should be analyzed on a case-by-case basis, depending on the goals and mission of each charter school.

• Maintaining regulations allows states and districts to exert a degree of control over the functioning of charter schools and provide some check on the quality of education received by charter school students.

• States and districts must learn which regulations need to be changed to grant maximum freedom. A "superwaiver" will not give a state or local district information about policy changes that could improve education in all district schools.

Control of Budget

In most states, a charter school must submit a budget as part of its petition. Within these parameters, charter schools are allowed to spend their resources as needed. In Alaska and Georgia, for example, more limited provisions on expenditures exist.

Consider the following:

1. Charter schools should be granted fiscal autonomy.

• Charter schools need to be free to allocate resources to best serve their school and community.

• Most states have audit provisions written into their statutes. Giving charter schools budgetary freedom is less problematic with these yearly audits.

2. Charter schools should be limited in their ability to spend resources.

• Some control is needed to ensure that public funds are not being used negligently through the term of the schools' charter.

• Audits show after the fact that money has been misspent; therefore, they do not provide adequate or timely control over charter school expenditures.

Standards and Assessments

Given the need to hold charter schools accountable for performance, standards and assessments are of prime importance to districts, other sponsors and charter schools. Standards set targets for performance, and assessments are intended to measure results. There is a debate about whose standards to use: the charter school's, the district's, the state's. States are evenly split between whether state standards and assessments should apply to charter schools or whether content and performance standards should be defined in the charter petition. Some states attempt to combine these two choices by allowing charter schools to select their own assessment instruments to meet state-determined education goals. Texas, for example, allows charter schools to set their own standards using statewide assessment instruments. Rhode Island's and Wisconsin's state education goals and standards apply to charter schools, but assessments are not defined in the law.

Consider the following options:

1. Statewide standards and assessments should apply to charter schools.

• To measure the success of charter schools relative to other schools, the same standards and assessments should be used.

• Allowing charter schools to develop their own standards and assessments makes evaluation more difficult and creates the potential for data manipulation by the charter school.

1. Standards and assessments should be established in the charter petition.

• Many charter schools have unique educational designs and innovations. They should be able to create goals and measurements that best match their school.

• Charter schools' missions and curricula often include goals that are not covered by statewide standards and assessments. Charter schools should be able to create measures that work best with their own goals.

3. States should require a combination of statewide and charter school-determined standards and assessments.

• A combined approach allows flexibility, while still providing an adequate means of comparison between charter school and local school students.

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This page was last updated January 9, 2002 (jca)