(The Center Square) – North Carolina’s Charter School Review Board this week renewed charters for 37 schools.
The renewals of three to seven years each came after a lengthy review process and presentations before the board. There were no rejections. Two additional schools will be up for renewal at the board’s February meeting.
“Our state has a very rigorous and thorough review process that in general the public may not be aware of,” Ashley Logue, executive director of the Office of Charter Schools, told TCS. “I think there is a misconception that charter schools can do what they want and that there’s nobody holding them accountable.”
The review process for the state’s 210 charter schools involves submission of documents and examination of student performance data and other information for a “deep dive” into how the school is performing, said Logue.
Site visits to the charter schools, review of their governance practices such as regular meetings of the board of directors and adherence to open meetings laws, are also reviewed.
Charter schools are also required to submit annual financial audits.
Taxpayers provide more money for education than any other part of the state budget. For fiscal year 2024-25, the figure was $17.9 billion. First-term Democrat Mo Green is the elected superintendent leading the Department of Public Instruction.
The state has about 90,000 public school educators spread among 115 districts for more than 2,500 traditional public schools, the 210 charter schools, one regional school, and 1.5 million students.
Typically, a charter would be considered for nonrenewal if it is not growing and has consistently low student academic performance, Logue said. There are also noncharter schools that are low performing and don’t undergo the scrutiny that charter schools have when their charters are up for renewal, Logue added.
“Every school has to have a full review,” she said. “That review takes two years.”
The review board this week renewed the charters of two virtual charter schools, NC Cyber Academy and North Carolina Virtual Academy, despite concerns over low academic performance.
“Over the past five years, NCCA has earned a D on its school performance grade and has not met growth expectations,” the state said. “The school is currently designated as continually low-performing.”
NCVA had a similar performance.
“Over the past five years, NCVA has earned a D on its school performance grade and has not met growth expectations, except in the 2022–23 school year, when it earned a C and exceeded growth,” the state said. “The school is currently designated as continually low-performing.”
Although the two virtual schools are not at the academic level that state would like them to be, they are still serving thousands of North Carolina students, Logue said.
“Parents are still choosing them as the option that fits their family,” she said.
