A situation similar to the outcry over the PIACS proposal may soon be fully avoidable. West Windsor Council members George Borek and Linda Geevers recently testified at a state education hearing in Trenton in favor of legislation that would give voters in a municipality the final say on whether a charter school can open in their district.
“What it would do is that even though a charter school would be sponsored though the department of education, before a charter school could go into existence it would have to go through voter approval. That would be an about-face of what it was before where if the department of education approved a charter school, we’d have no say,” Borek said.
At its meeting on Monday, February 13, council voted 5-0 to support adoption of the changes. The bills, number S2243 and its companion bill, number A1877, have moved through the state assembly and are now in the senate. Borek said a resolution will be sent to state legislators urging them to move the legislation on to Governor Christie’s office.
“The governor has indicated that he would sign it,” Borek said.
Geevers said one reason she is “all for it” was because it gives residents the right to vote. She outlined the process ahead for future charter schools. After an application goes to the education commissioner, where they would need to get preliminary approval, it would go on to local ballots for a vote.
Also, if a school is originally approved for a certain number of grades and wishes to expand, such as many of the K-2 schools, Geevers said the school would need to come back on the ballot to get voter approval of that application.
The second bill calls for greater transparency in charter school operations as well as more educational and financial accountability. Geevers pointed out that under current regulations school districts fund 90 percent of charter schools’ per-student costs.
Borek said that there could be savings implications for the school district at play. WW-P has been holding $1.2 million over the last two school years that Borek says could be allocated for other use instead of sitting in a charter school fund.
“If this legislation gets approved then the charter school would have to go through a process where voters make the choice for their area, even though a charter school may have had prior approval. It’s a win-win for the taxpayers because no matter where you stand on charter schools this is an opportunity to say yea or nay to them,” Borek said.
