Nevada's AB49 a Giant Step Backward For Charters

WASHINGTON, D.C.— The leaders of The Charter School Roundtable have cautioned Nevada’s policymakers against enacting Assembly Bill No. 49, a bill creating “an overly bureaucratic and non-charter friendly environment for Nevada and will have the effect of limiting all growth and development other than schools that operate in similar ways to traditional public schools.”

In the letter, the Roundtable, a national leadership group dedicated to sound charter school policy and representing hundreds of thousands of students, cautioned the lawmakers that this bill would put charter schools in the same regulatory path that traditional public school educators have been fighting for years.

“You were probably told that this bill would ensure increased accountability for public charter schools in Nevada. If the traditional public schools like those in Clark County are your model of accountability, this is your bill.”

AB49 was proposed by the State Public Charter School Authority (SPCSA) to strengthen its hand in making decisions about charter schools. Instead, it creates a punitive, input-driven, and flawed policies that put traditional public school districts on a path to failure.  While requiring more regulatory paperwork and innovation-averse behaviors of charters, the Charter Authority itself would be exempt from the Administrative Procedures Act and therefore permitted to operate outside of all other public agency requirements, including transparency.

The leaders cautioned the Senators: “Please do not support AB49. It is not amendable as constructed and all students deserve better than this.”

Among the signers were schools belonging to The Charter School Roundtable representing almost half a million students nationwide, including Boys’ Latin of Philadelphia Charter, Challenge Charter Schools, Charter Schools USA, GEO Foundation, iLEAD Schools, K12 Inc. and the SABIS Network.

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