Dive Brief:
- The lieutenant governor of North Carolina, Dan Forest, has delayed a Board of Education vote on the state's annual charter report in order to have more time to "review" its content.
- Forest told WRAL that the report "did not have a lot of positive things to say," adding that its content would be "fuel" for the media to criticize what the state is doing and expressing concern that charter schools wouldn't get "a fair shake."
- Simultaneously, the board voted on a new policy designed to be easier on low-performing charter schools, giving them as many as five years instead of two before potentially shutting them down.
Dive Insight:
The charter report in question is said to show that "the student population at state charter schools is wealthier and whiter than student bodies at traditional public schools," according to the News & Observer, which cited new statistics that more than 57% of charter students are white, as opposed to 49.5% at traditional public schools.
Charters have expanded rapidly in North Carolina, with 158 schools now serving around 82,000 students. "Since 2011, the [North Carolina] legislature has moved to speed charter growth by making it easier for individual schools to significantly increase their enrollments and for successful schools to replicate," the News & Observer reports.
Another local media outlet, the Charlotte Observer, called the move "a rare glimpse of the inner workings" of politics in public education.