The charter school commission is a nine-member board appointed by the state board of education from a list of nominees sent by Governor Pat Quinn.
Among other things, the commission has the authority to create charters even when they’ve been rejected by local school boards, including Chicago’s. Think of it as a place that charter operators can appeal to when they don’t get their way—as if this band of clout-heavy privateers needs even more juice.
If the commission decides to hand out a charter over the objection of the local school board, the new charter school essentially becomes a publicly funded independent operator that’s free of control from the local district.
In effect, every time the commission approves a new charter, it creates a virtually unregulated shadow institution, unaccountable to taxpayers who fund their budgets.
Thank you, commission.
It’s not as though the state was doing a whiz-bang job of regulating charters to begin with. It took Sun-Times investigative reporter Dan Mihalopoulos to break the news that UNO, one of Illinois’s largest charter operators, was handing out state construction money to companies owned by brothers of a top UNO executive.
For that matter, Mihalopoulos and reporter Becky Schlikerman were the ones who reported that two Chicago charter schools were planning to pay rent to landlords who happen to be cronies of Mayor Emanuel’s.
Why not put Mihalopoulos in charge of regulating charter schools? He seems to know more about what they’re up to than the officials who are supposed to keep an eye on them.