Minneapolis teacher’s union approved to authorize charter schools
The Minneapolis teachers’ union has become the first in the nation to win the right to authorize charter schools.
State officials have approved the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers as a charter school authorizer.
Authorizers don’t run charters; they oversee the administrators and school boards that handle day-to-day operations of a charter school. Authorizers are also primary decision makers on which schools to sponsor.
During the 20-year history of charter schools there have been examples of teachers starting schools, and some charters have unionized teachers.
MFT will be the first union to serve as a charter sponsor. Formally, it has created an organization called the Minnesota Guild of Charter Schools (informally ‘the Guild’) that will serve as authorizer.This makes sense. I hope we see much more of this.
Perhaps someone will ask WEAC’s Mary Bell about this at the 12.6.2011 WisPolitics lunch.
