SBOE Committee Discusses Concerns
Over Upcoming Charter Selection Process
TEA staff briefed the SBOE Committee on School Initiatives (agenda/webcast-click Item 5) about the upcoming “Generation 27” application leading to the selection of new charter districts to open starting in School Year 2023-24.
Staff said the plan was to open the application cycle with publication in the Texas Register, most likely in the Sept. 17 issue, with a December 2021 deadline for application submissions.
- Update: Click here for the TEA’s Sept. 17 announcement on the release of the Generation 27 charter application.
Board members, as they have done in prior SBOE meetings over the years, expressed irritation over state law that gives the board veto powers over the commissioner’s picks — while not giving them authority over expansion amendments sought by existing charters that are solely within the commissioner’s purview.
Staff said that one item that was under consideration was giving ISDs more time to submit impact statements on the effects of charters that are proposing to open campuses in the ISD’s vicinity.
Committee members expressed concern that they were being briefed by the TEA too late in the process to have their ideas included in the charter application packets due to the looming Texas Register submission deadline. SBOE member Ruben Cortez Jr., D-Brownsville, said that in the many years he has been on the board, very few of his suggestions for improvements in the charter selection process had been adopted by the commissioner.
In response to questioning, TEA staff said they were reviewing a letter submitted by 19 ISD-related educator advocacy and other groups, and individuals, urging improvements and more transparency in the charter application and selection process.
The committee discussed recommending that the full board adopt a list of criteria that would likely lead to a charter applicant approved by the commissioner ultimately being vetoed — or not vetoed — by the SBOE so that the charter applicants would know beforehand what the board is looking for in terms of a quality charter applicant.
But SBOE member Aicha Davis, D-Dallas, said that this could lead to potential charters selling the SBOE “a bill of goods” because the board can’t hold them to what they promise.
Although the committee informally agreed to discuss with the full board, during its general meeting the next day, their concerns and ideas about the application process so it would be in time to possibly influence the application process, TEA General Legal Counsel Von Byer ruled the discussion was not allowed because it had not been posted on the agenda. The best that can be done, Byer said, was to put the item on a future agenda for full board discussion.