By Walter Elliott
NEWARK – An early summer New Jersey Supreme Court ruling is allowing four Newark-based charter school networks to complete their 2016-21 classroom and grade expansion.
Once those seven schools among the North Star Academy, KIPP TEAM Academy, Great Oakes Academy and Robert Treat Academy “top out” their expansion before the Sept. 3-6 Labor Day weekend, they will be subject to stricter New Jersey Department of Education scrutiny.
That “going forward” scrutiny includes weighing any future charter school expansion would further segregation among racial, English Language Learner and special need student categories in comparison to Newark Public Schools’ traditional schools.
These are the outcomes of The Supreme Court of New Jersey’s June 22 ruling that upheld then-New Jersey Education Commissioner David Hespe’s allowing the said Newark-based charter schools’ expansion in February 2016.
The high court decision focused on charter school expansion in Newark, which is home to the state’s largest public school district and the largest concentration of charter school districts.
The ruling, however, has ramifications on how charter school districts across the state ask the NJDOE for future expansion.
June 22’s ruling ended a six-year challenge mounted by the Education Law center against Hespe, NJDOE’s Office of Charter Schools and the said four Newark-based charter districts.
Hespe, in February 2016, authorized Great Oakes, KIPP, North Star and Robert Treat ‘s request to add classrooms and grades levels among seven of their schools. They would be adding up to 8,499 students on or by their 2021-22 final expansion year.
Their request to Hespe came in the midst of Newark-based charter school districts tripling their enrollment 2010-17. Overall enrollment among the then-27 schools and 10 districts went from 4,559 to 12,800 Kindergarten-12th Grade students those seven years.
The privately run charter schools, who answer directly to NJDOE’s Charter School office, receive 90 percent of per-pupil tuition from the “sending” public school districts. Those sending public districts include those municipalities where the said charter schools are located.
The Newark Public Schools’ charter school tuition payment, those seven years, went from $80 million to $250 million. The $250 million represented a quarter of NPS’ 2016-17 budget.
Hespe’s 2016 expansion authorization came while Christopher Cerf was NPS State District Superintendent. Cerf, who was shepherding NPS’ transition from a state-run district back to an autonomous district, was answering to his former chief of staff.
Gov. Christopher Christie appointed Cerf to succeed the controversial “One Newark Plan” author Camille Anderson. Christie also promoted Hespe as his new education commissioner.
The Education Law Center, which filed suit in April 2016, was challenging Hespe’s decision on more than public school district financial grounds. ELC’s lawyers argued that the charters’ enrollment of special needs and ELL students were not proportional to public school district enrollment. The disproportions, they argued, contributed to racial segregation between NPS and the charters.
The State Supreme Court ruling upheld a March 7, 2019 Appellate Court decision that allowed Hespe’s Newark charter expansion plan to continue. A retroactive retraction of the expansion, reasoned the justices, would disrupt the charters and sending public districts’ enrollment.
“Such a remedy would severely impact Newark’s charter school students and their families,” said Justice Anne Patterson, who wrote the court’s decision, “and would subvert the State Legislature’s policy to expand educational opportunities.”
The high court faulted Hespe, however, as being “deficient” in not considering whether the expansion would further segregate NPS in terms of race, special needs, ELL students and/or funding resources.
Hespe, who ended his 30-month stint as Commissioner on December 2016, now works in a Morristown legal firm. He had briefly held a post-NJDOE job with NPS.
The State Supreme court ruling allows public school districts to oppose charter expansion by showing how it would adversely affect their budgets.
“Today’s ruling now puts the Commissioner on firm and clear notice on the state’s constitutional obligation, on an ongoing basis,” said ELC Executive Director David Sciarra, “to evaluate the impact of charter schools on student segregation and take action to remedy those impacts.”
“As a parent and advocate for families,” said N.J. Public Charter Schools Association Parent Engagement Director Jasmine Morrison June 22, “I’m grateful the court has decided that children enrolled in public charter schools in Newark may continue to attend these high-quality public schools.”
Stricter charter school applications, however, may have been set some 70 days before the State Supreme Court decision. NJDOE Commissioner Angelica Allen-McMillian, in a series of March decisions, denied further expansion requests from Robert Treat, North State, KIPP and Greater Oaks.
Allen-McMillian questioned the expansion while the said charter networks still have not reached capacity and expressed concerns over how their requests would impact NPS’ budget.
