Right to Know laws must apply to charter schools
September 08, 2012 Right to Know Law
OPINION
The [Pottstown] Mercury
One of the things that didn’t get done in the waning hours before the Pennsylvania General Assembly adjourned for its summer vacation was the charter school reform bill, a failure that has spawned the consternation of Gov. Tom Corbett, who wanted the matter handled.
Nine-tenths of the bill would have sailed through both houses, but the tenth tenth would have allowed charter schools and charter school vendors to slide out from under the the state’s Right to Know Law.
The Republican leadership of the House liked the idea. The Senate, also controlled by Republicans, didn’t like it, and there was no time to hammer things out.
What occurred was a squabble with undertones of a long-standing feud between some members of the Senate and some members of the House.
The Republican handlers in the House contended their counterparts in the Senate were misreading both the charter proposal and the existing Right to Know Law, while some Senators said the provision was protection for large campaign contributions from the charter lobby.
Whatever the motivations, we believe the proposal was a bad idea.
Charter schools have become big business in Pennsylvania, a business that Gov. Corbett and his allies in the General Assembly (of which there are legions) would like to see grow even bigger.
The [Pottstown] Mercury
One of the things that didn’t get done in the waning hours before the Pennsylvania General Assembly adjourned for its summer vacation was the charter school reform bill, a failure that has spawned the consternation of Gov. Tom Corbett, who wanted the matter handled.
Nine-tenths of the bill would have sailed through both houses, but the tenth tenth would have allowed charter schools and charter school vendors to slide out from under the the state’s Right to Know Law.
The Republican leadership of the House liked the idea. The Senate, also controlled by Republicans, didn’t like it, and there was no time to hammer things out.
What occurred was a squabble with undertones of a long-standing feud between some members of the Senate and some members of the House.
The Republican handlers in the House contended their counterparts in the Senate were misreading both the charter proposal and the existing Right to Know Law, while some Senators said the provision was protection for large campaign contributions from the charter lobby.
Whatever the motivations, we believe the proposal was a bad idea.
Charter schools have become big business in Pennsylvania, a business that Gov. Corbett and his allies in the General Assembly (of which there are legions) would like to see grow even bigger.
