Charter schools have become a hot topic in New Jersey and officials are currently considering 38 new applications. New Jersey Charter Schools Association President and CEO Carlos Perez told NJTV News Managing Editor Mike Schneider that he expects roughly the same number of applications to be approved this year as last year.
Last year, state officials approved six of 38 applications. While the number seems low, Perez explained that there are many different types of people who apply because anyone can submit applications.
Some of this year’s applications come from people who were previously rejected. “We encourage folks to continue working and strengthening their applications. Some of the applications are extremely strong. Some of the applications are in the middle of the road and need some work. And other ones are probably really weak,” Perez said.
According to Perez, when weak and middle of the road applications are approved, it hurts the cause of charter schools. In the past, he said weak applications had been approved. “I really believe in the past three to four years we’ve seen a significant improvement in the evaluation process for charter schools, really setting a high bar and a high threshold for applications,” he said.
While progress has been made, Perez said changes in the application process are still necessary. “We’ve got to take the application process out of the political hands. So over the last couple years we’ve had a great commissioner in Chris Cerf. Now we’ve got another great commissioner in David Hespe, really taking chartering seriously and taking charge of this,” he said. “But we all know there’s gonna be a new governor in about three years and we don’t know what the political dynamic is gonna be. So we want to make sure that we’re insulating the application process from the political environment as much as possible.”
Perez said he believes a political lens has been used to evaluate charter school applications. “We believe that a charter school application should be reviewed on the merits of the application and those folks who are designing the charter school application can really prove that the school can meet the needs of children,” he said.
Some of this year’s applicants are specialized, emphasizing areas including fashion, health, technology and business. Perez sees the varying specialties as reflections of a diverse community. “We have so many various concerns for education and so many ways to prepare our children for life in our society that our schools need to reflect those various different points in our society where we have educated kids and educated communities,” he said.
Charter schools in urban areas often offer families hope for a high quality education, according to Perez. “We talk about various different programs, but a lot of times our schools in urban communities are really focused on the basics — reading, math, science; the core subjects that many students haven’t been getting for far too long,” he said.
The graduation rate at charter schools is very high. Perez said more important than that statistic is that more students attend college after graduation. “We have several of our schools where they have 100 percent college placement and acceptance percentage. And that’s fantastic,” he said. “The next journey for us is to make sure that our students are now staying and graduating from college. We firmly believe that the schools are preparing students not just for getting into college but sustaining college and being ready for life as well.”