Who authorizes the authorizers?

A blog post by Arianna Prothero in Education Week looks at the continuing debate, and differing schools of thought, around charter authorization. Authorizers and how they make decisions have gotten more attention lately, especially in Ohio and Michigan, where state- and press-led investigations have turned up academic and financial failures at charters. Some have subsequently argued that weak authorizing practices lead to weak schools, but as is often the case in the charter sector, debate oscillates between autonomy and accountability. The right-leaning American Enterprise Institute recently issued a report arguing, among other things, that authorizers and lawmakers require charter applicants to jump through too many hoops to get approval, "creating an onerous and lengthy process that risks freezing out potential school operators." Last September, the left-leaning Anneberg Institute for School Reform released a report that also made recommendations around authorization. The AEI report was followed by a volley of critiques from the National Association of Charter School Authorizers and the Thomas B. Fordham Institute pointing out that no organization calling for less -- or more -- regulation of authorizers has actual experience with authorization. AEI's rebuttal: "Our critics agree with our fundamental point that mission creep is (a) happening and (b) bad.  It strikes that it would particularly behoove them to articulate clear boundaries for authorizer behavior." More

Source:  Public Education News Blast

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