Latest News and Comment from Education

Wednesday, July 16, 2014

Mother Crusader: Vahan Gureghian's For Profit Charter Chain CSMI Ready To 'Do AC'

Mother Crusader: Vahan Gureghian's For Profit Charter Chain CSMI Ready To 'Do AC':



Vahan Gureghian's For Profit Charter Chain CSMI Ready To 'Do AC'

It sure has been a busy week in education news in New Jersey. The education blogosphere has been burning up with posts about Governor Christie's executive order regarding PARCC and Common Core, hereherehere, and here. It's been covered in all the major news outlets too, and there was even a press release to explain how the DOE will implement the Executive Order.

With all this chatter it's pretty likely that yesterday's press release about the five charters awarded their final charters, giving them the green light to open in September, will go all but unnoticed. TheStar Ledger's Peggy McGlone covered it, but pretty much just regurgitated a few clips from the press release. 

Yawn. 

Here are the five charters Commissioner Hespe has determined are worthy of your tax dollars.


For now let's take a look at one in particular. I hope you'll forgive me, but the details surrounding the approval of the Atlantic City Community Charter School (ACCCS) had slipped my mind. 

Afterall, it's hard to keep track of a charter approved in January of 2011. Yes, you read that right, ACCCS was originally approved more than three years ago.

ACCCS was one of 23 charters approved in one of Christie's blockbuster charter application rounds when he was still riding high on a wave of ed reform. Every year since then ACCCS has been given planning years. 

In July 2011 the DOE stated ACCCS and 20 other potential charters needed "additional time to plan and develop."

In July 2012 ACCCS and 9 other charters "failed to demonstrate sufficient progress towards readiness."

By July 2013 the DOE stopped reporting how many charter DIDN'T make the cut for final charters Mother Crusader: Vahan Gureghian's For Profit Charter Chain CSMI Ready To 'Do AC':