Charter Schools Denied in Suburbs

After months of protests, contentious meetings and accusations of conflicts of interest, the state Department of Education on Friday rejected charter schools proposed for several successful suburban school districts, approving only four of 55 applications statewide.

To pay for those schools, many of them based around language immersion programs in Mandarin or Hebrew, suburban school districts would have had to allocate cash to cover 90 percent of tuition for any district student who chose to attend – a cost that sparked bitter sentiments that these specialty schools would drain public funds from well-functioning school districts.

Proponents countered that language immersion education would better prepare pupils for the increasing demands of a global marketplace and that it would not be as big a drain as districts claimed because the district would not have to educate those children.

“Charter schools serve a critical need in New Jersey not only by providing high-quality options for students where they otherwise do not exist, but also by serving as laboratories of innovation,” said Acting Commissioner Chris Cerf in making Friday’s announcement.

The four proposals that were approved are in Trenton, Jersey City, Camden, and Cherry Hill. They will open next September.

“That’s good news for us,” said Millburn Superintendent Dr. James Crisfield, who faced the possibility of two Mandarin-immersion charters in his district. On learning of the proposals last April, Crisfield hosted an “informational session” inviting other districts to learn what charters would mean for their schools. “I’m relieved and very grateful. It would have been very difficult to make financial ends meet with yet another drain on our resources.”

Assemblywoman Mila Jasey (D-27th District), who has led efforts for charter school reform in Trenton, said she was “encouraged by the measured approach taken by the department in evaluating and approving four out of the 55 charter schools. However, I remain concerned about the large number of schools that have been approved this year."

So far, that number is 27, the largest number approved in any one year since the charter law was passed in New Jersey, according to the state Department of Education.

“With thousands of children on waiting lists, there is clearly a demand for more public charter schools in New Jersey,” said Carlos Perez, the president and CEO of the New Jersey Charter Schools Association, in a statement released by the group.

Cerf said he expects another large applicant pool for the fall expedited round. That deadline is Oct. 17.

“That worries me,” Jasey said. “We still haven’t addressed the capacity and oversight issues.”

She said some voters are also insisting on a voice on whether a charter school can open in their districts. “People want a say, and that’s true in suburban and urban districts,” Jasey said.

 “The NJ legislature has to reform this broken law immediately to bring the state in line with the rest of the country and to give local communities control over their public schools and how their property taxes are spent," said Julia Sass Rubin, a founder of Save Our Schools New Jersey.

Last week in Livingston, Rubin and Perez  the hot-button education issue at a forum organized by the League of Women Voters of Livingston.

"Going forward, we support legislative and policy changes that will ensure high-quality charter schools in New Jersey, including expanding the number of charter school authorizers in the state," Perez said on Friday. "Having more charter school authorizers will not only ensure new charter schools are high quality, but will help to ensure existing charter schools are living up to expectations.”

Rubin disagreed: “We appreciate that the DOE is hearing some of our concerns and taking a more measured approach to charter school authorization," she said. “However, the fundamental problems with the New Jersey charter school law have not disappeared, including a complete lack of local control over the new charter school approval process.”

Governor Christie has called on legislators to pass his proposed reforms to the New Jersey charter law to strengthen and expand high-quality charter schools in New Jersey, including allowing districts to convert failing public schools into charters.

The charters proposed in several wealthy suburban districts came under fire because they sought to venture into a high-performing school districts.  and Cerf at various times conceded that charter schools may not be needed in districts that are .”

Of the four approved, Cerf said, “The most important bar that any applicant must clear is demonstrating that the school has a very high likelihood of providing an excellent education to its students. Through our rigorous review process, we became confident that these four schools will offer students a great education on day one of the school year.“

Applicants not approved in this round have the opportunity to reapply. “It has been our experience that with additional guidance and time to plan, applicants who were not approved have been able to resubmit successful applications,” Cerf said.

Patch editors Laura Griffin, Marcia Worth, Mary Mann and Shelley Emling contributed to this story.