Some 235 students from kindergarten through high school attend Hoboken Charter, while 400 students await an opening. He absolutely did not want to go to school. They made him feel like he was a problem. Now he can't wait for Monday. In contrast, Schundler's Golden Door school was put on probation by the state, which questioned the Jersey City school's accounting methods.
Charter schools face considerable pressure from outside their doors.
Rankled by the drain from its coffers, the Highland Park school district last year appealed to the state's Council on Local Mandates to do away with the 1998 law. The district succeeded, much to the consternation of charter schools across the state, many of which struggled to stay afloat even with the 90 percent subsidy. The real threat to charters, though, may come not from disgruntled school districts but from tighter regulation. In the salad days of the charter school movement, advocates envisioned a system that would flourish as a result of operating virtually free from state regulation. Instead, the state has defined each charter school as a kind of district unto itself, ensuring enforcement of the usual school regulations.