The ColoradoState Board has logged some 50 appeals of local board charter denialsand the Denver district is litigating to block a State Board order togrant a charter. Charter school startup anddevelopment, according to the report findings, is extremelychallenging. Facilities shortages and lack of facilities funding posea major hurdle. Colorado schools seem to be doing a relatively goodjob of setting goals, assessing performance, and meeting their goals. Minnesota and Massachusetts schools, in contrast, may be strugglingin these areas and some schools and some district sponsors may beasleep at the switch.
Governance is also a major problem area formany schools in Minnesota and Massachusetts.
Though the Coloradoreport said little about internal governance matters, anecdotalreports from Colorado indicate it is a trouble spot for many of theircharter schools too. The drafters of all three reports may be too tentative inexamining important policy matters. Colorado's unique system ofproviding a funding floor at only 80 percent of per-pupil revenues isapparently putting their schools under serious fiscal pressures andmakes it difficult for the Colorado schools to pay competitiveteacher salaries. All three states lack a mechanism to allow charter schools to sharein facilities funding streams and none of the reports even hints atpotential solutions. The new data from Minnesota, combined withpreviously existing data from Massachusetts and other states showthat charter schools can and do serve diverse student populations,including special needs and disadvantaged students.