In Pennsylvania, the procedure for approving charter schools is that they first apply to the local school district, and if they are denied, they can appeal to the Charter School Appeals Board, which has been staffed by right-wing anti-public education goons for years.<\/p>\n
The Republican led legislature has refused to consider replacements on the boards nominated by Democratic Governor Tom Wolf.<\/p>\n
After 7 years of delay, Wolf has fired the entire board<\/a>, which means that it can no longer overrule school board decisions on charters, because there is no one to hold a meeting.<\/p>\n Wolf has nominated replacements, all of whom come from a background in public schools, so not the legislature can appoint his nominees, who might not vote to overrule local school boards, or not appoint anyone, which means that all appeals are effectively denied:<\/p>\n \u2026\u2026\u2026<\/p>\n It took Gov. Tom Wolf, a Democrat, seven years to fire his predecessor\u2019s appointments and nominate replacements to the CAB.<\/a> <\/p>\n Yet the GOP legislature is crying crocodile tears that he\u2019s exceeding his authority by doing so. <\/p>\n The board is supposed to be a place where charter schools can challenge decisions made by their local school boards. <\/p>\n Charters are schools that are funded <\/a>by taxpayer dollars but can be privately operated. <\/p>\n They have to ask the local school board for permission to open a new school in their district. Since the new charter would double services already present at the existent public school<\/a> and require both schools to split existing funding<\/a>, there is little incentive for school boards to grant these requests. <\/p>\n But charters can bypass local government by going to the CAB. Or at least they could when the board still had sitting members on it. <\/p>\n The CAB consists of the Secretary of Education and six members who are appointed by the Governor and approved by the state senate. <\/p>\n