School District Begins Hearings On Applications For 40 New Charter Schools
By Mike DeNardo
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - Today brings the first round of hearings on dozens of new charter school applications in Philadelphia.
The school district is starting a week of hearings on applications to run 40 new charters. Each applicant will get 15 minutes to make a presentation.
Among them is Ben Persofsky, who will push for a new MAST charter school in center city, to try to keep parents from moving away:
"If we take kids out of the district schools, we've failed in our mission. At the end of the day, the way that we see that we win is if we are able to work together to attract more parents to stay in Center City."
David Shahriari, one of the leaders at center city's Freire Charter, will argue for a new Tech Freire school:
"Freire's population is 98-percent students of color. And those students in particular are so underrepresented in those fields, that there's almost a mandate that this type of education be made available."
The cigarette tax law gives applicants who are denied a second chance before the state charter appeals board.
A second round of hearings is planned next month.
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