Education proposal: Corporations could reserve student places, board seats in charter schools

[teach1st]

Source: New Orleans Times-Picayune

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House Bill 421 by Rep. Steve Carter, R-Baton Rouge, would allow corporations to secure spots on charter governing boards and reserve student enrollment slots for children of employees. To qualify, a corporation would have to donate the parcel on which the school is built, donate an existing building for the school's use or pay for major renovations to an existing school building. The corporation could lay claim to up to half of the enrollment spaces in the school and control up to 50 percent of the seats of the governing board. The measure includes a caveat that the bill could not be used to displace students who are already enrolled.

The committee's 12-2 vote sends the bill, which Gov. Bobby Jindal supports, to the House floor.

Carter and business lobbyists framed the bill as another tool in Louisiana's economic development efforts. But a stream of critics representing teachers associations and local school boards said it would mark a fundamental negative shift in public policy.

Michael Walker-Jones, executive director of the Louisiana Association of Educators, said the bill would allow "corporations to open private schools to serve their own interests." LAE is one of the state's two major teachers unions. Carter said he remains a strong supporter of traditional public schools and public charter schools. The bill, he said, should not be framed as a threat to those institutions.

Read more: http://www.nola.com/politics/index.ssf/2011/05/education_proposal_corporation.html