Minneapolis teacher's union approved to authorize charter schools

Tom Weber:

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.

Posted by Jim Zellmer at December 4, 2011 1:32 AM
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