The Maryland State Board of Education on Tuesday reversed Montgomery County Public Schools’ decision to reject two charter school applications, charging the local school board’s members with holding biases against charter schools and calling a memo from Superintendent Jerry Weast “vague and, at best, confusing.” Moreover, the state says Montgomery’s board failed to comply with its own evaluation process, cutting the charter applicants off from important feedback.
In a 17-page verdict, the state board found that the Montgomery school board “failed to provide any rationale for its decision” to reject an application from Global Gardens Public Charter School Inc. On the same basis, the state board overturned Montgomery’s rejection of Crossway Community Inc.’s application and gave the local board 90 days to revisit those decisions.
“We’re going to have to speak with the [school] attorney, and to the superintendent, and understand what that is going to mean,” said Montgomery school board President Christopher Barclay after learning of the reversal from The Washington Examiner.
Among the state board’s concerns were Weast’s comments to the Montgomery board before its June 8 ruling: “In budget times you have to share your revenues with other schools. So we look at things about school choice, and there’s over 150 private schools in our community.”
The state responded that “if that were the case, given the superintendent’s comment about the multitude of choices in Montgomery County, no charter school could likely ever be approved there.” There are no public charters in Montgomery County.
The Montgomery board’s procedure requires that an internal review of charter applications precede an external review — but these reviews occurred simultaneously. Following procedure would have allowed the applicants “to receive feedback on the application” and “make substantive revisions and resubmit,” the state board said.
They called Weast’s dismissal in a memo of Global Gardens’ world language instruction proposal “vague and, at best, confusing,” and found no evidence that the reasons he provided factored into the board’s vote.
The state board was also “extremely concerned” to learn of statements by board members exhibiting a bias against charters. In a questionnaire of candidates for board re-election, then-President Patricia O’Neill said she was “skeptical about charter schools” and “worr[ies] about the draining of funds from MCPS.”
The verdict scolded, “We remind the local board that the General Assembly has decided that public charter schools shall exist in the state of Maryland and that these schools are a part of the public school system.”
