Rocketship Agrees to Back Down

Last night it was announced that Rocketship Education would not being using any of the 20 charters the Santa Clara County Office of Education authorized in December 2011 in the Franklin-McKinley school district.  A statement read at the school board meeting explained that the Franklin-McKinley Union School District and Rocketship Education had reached a settlement on lawsuit filed in February, 2014:

 “Under the terms of the agreement, in exchange for Petitioners’ agreement to conclude the litigation, Rocketship Education has agreed not to operate any of the challenged countywide charter schools within the District and not to seek new charter schools within the District until a future date.”

In December 2011, the Santa Clara County School Board authorized 20 county-wide charters on the grounds that Rocketship needed to go beyond local school district boundaries to operate its schools.  At the time, Rocketship had already opened three county-wide charters and were authorized to open five more schools.  The December 2011 vote meant that the Santa Clara County School Board was willing to contract out the education of over 18,000 elementary students to a three-year old charter management organization.

Rocketship’s business model is based on expansion of their education network.  In August of 2014, Rocketship had plans to have 13 schools in the Bay Area and schools in four other regions by 2015-16. Today, Rocketship Education manages nine schools in Santa Clara County, six of these schools are authorized by the Santa Clara County School Board and two are authorized by Franklin-McKinley.  Rocketship also operates schools in Milwaukee and Nashville. A planned school in Washington D.C. has been postponed for at least a year. Rocketship has abandoned plans to open in Indianapolis. It seems that the pre-opening fundraising of $5.5 million dollars is preventing some of Rocketship’s national expansion.

In Santa Clara County, Rocketship Education has been thwarted by lawsuits.  Last year, San Jose Unified School District won a suit against the Santa Clara County School Board when the county board tried to rezone district property.  Franklin-McKinley joined four other school districts to challenge the county authorization of twenty county-wide charter schools. Last night’s announcement settled that issue.

But Rocketship Education might still open a school in Franklin-McKinley next year.  The Franklin-McKinley school board will vote on a new Rocketship school in April.  If denied, Rocketship will most likely appeal to the county board. If the Santa Clara County School Board approves the school on appeal, another county-wide Rocketship could open in Franklin-McKinley next year without using one of the 20 schools named in the lawsuit.

But the moral of this story is that these schools are apparently not having the affect they’ve promised. And taking over public schools is not a better answer to educate students.

 

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