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Pulling back the curtains on wage-theft enforcement in MN; Trump's latest attack is on RFK, Jr; NM LGBTQ+ equality group endorses 2024 'Rock Star' candidates; Michigan's youth justice reforms: Expanded diversion, no fees.

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Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg says rebuilding Baltimore's Key Bridge will be challenging and expensive. An Alabama Democrat flips a state legislature seat and former Connecticut senator Joe Lieberman dies at 82.

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Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

Teachers Urge Better Oversight of Charter School Operators

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Monday, April 26, 2010   

ALBANY, N.Y. - Regulations governing charter schools don't catch financial abuses and operational flaws, warns a report released this week by the New York State United Teachers. Andrew Pallotta, the union's executive vice president, says the regulations need to be reformed, especially if the current cap of 200 charter schools is lifted.

"There are problems that have come to the surface that the public would be tremendously upset with - how money is being spent in the charter schools at a time when schools are being cut throughout the state."

The teachers union is not out to sink the charter school system, he adds, but it wants the law strengthened to ensure that public dollars are spent wisely and that charters serve all students fairly.

Regulatory officials told a Senate hearing Thursday that there is room for more accountability and transparency but, they said, the controls are already firm.

The union's "white paper" shows state regulators what they may be missing about what goes wrong in some charter schools. Equally important, Pallotta says, is learning from what's being done right.

"If there's something that they're doing...is it professional development? Is it school uniforms? Is it a longer day? Whatever it is, if it's something that they're doing that's producing these great results, then it should be shared with everyone."

Charter schools - funded by taxpayer dollars, but operated by private corporations - are capped at 200 statewide. Advocates want to lift the cap. New York State United Teachers says not without more accountability.

"We would never agree to the cap being lifted without reforms. The reforms have to come first. And then, we have nothing against the word 'charter schools.'"

New York State is under pressure to lift its cap on charters in order to win hundreds of millions of dollars in federal "Race to the Top" aid for education.





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