Law, culture crush charters in Virginia

The governor says he supports charter schools. The state revised its charter law last summer. The school districts are in the country’s forefront. So why does Virginia have only four charter schools? The Center for Education Reform gave Virginia’s charter school law an “F” because local school boards possess sole authority to approve charter school applications. Once the applications are shot down, there is no appeal process, the charter school advocacy group’s research director explained.

“I call it a ‘charter law in name only,’ ” Alison Consoletti said.