December 7, 2015 6:17 PM

Senate Education digs down into charter school facilities

“…when TEA examined the maximum enrollment numbers of existing charter schools, TEA found there are actually 108,000 empty seats in existing charter schools with existing facilities.”

Despite tougher laws on the books to shut down failing campuses, Texas charter schools still face opposition from traditional main-line education groups. In his first hearing on interim charges, Chair Sen. Larry Taylor, R-Friendswood, held a marathon session on Monday dominated by discussion of the effectiveness of charter schools, including the waiting list of 100,000 students looking for a school.

The specific topic of the discussion was facilities, and more specifically, the disposition of the facilities of failed charter schools, which has been the subject of some contention in recent years. Patty Quinzi of the Texas chapter of the American Federation of Teachers said she wanted to set the record straight on just how tight the market was for publicly funded charter school seats.

“At the July 2015 State Board of Education Committee on School Initiatives meeting, TEA staff stated that although we often hear charter proponents claim there is a student waitlist for charter schools of over 100,000 students, that waitlist is for specific charter schools,” Quinzi said. “In fact, when TEA examined the maximum enrollment numbers of existing charter schools, TEA found there are actually 108,000 empty seats in existing charter schools with existing facilities.”

By Kimberly Reeves