Charters Drowning in Red Tape

What could your family, business, or place of work do with an extra 700 hours? This is a question Pennsylvania charter schools are likely asking after a new report from the American Enterprise Institute.

According to AEI, charter applicants face onerous authorization processes that mandate 700 hours of needless work. After coding the requirements from dozens of charter authorizers across the country, AEI authors found that more than half of the mandates are either “unnecessary” or “clearly inappropriate.”

Streamlining the application process would allow authorizers to focus on what they do well and free up hundreds of hours for charter administrators. This would also balance the playing field for charter schools that are not managed by a larger operating entity. The deck is currently stacked against small groups of parents, teachers, and civic leaders who want to open up their own school.

Take a look at the table from AEI below. Requirements in the red lower-right quadrant have little bearing on whether a school will be able to successfully serve its student body, while items in the green upper-left quadrant include a reasonable standard by which charter applicants should be held.

Charter Matrix

An overly burdensome application process has three primary consequences. First, it wastes times for school administrators that could be engaged in more productive, education-related tasks. Second, it discourages other qualified charter applicants from taking the plunge and submitting an application to the authorizing body. Third, it hampers charter schools in their pursuit of innovation and experimenting with new educational models.  

Of course, a thorough application and authorization process is important to ensure quality for Pennsylvania’s growing network of charter schools. But authorizers—namely, local school boards—must consider whether they are mistaking length for rigor. School boards should heed the advice from AEI and eliminate needless tasks that do not provide a window into the quality of a prospective applicant.