Dallas Trustees Wrangle Over pre-K Charter School Partnerships

Dallas school officials insist that the youngest learners would benefit from a deal that converts some nonprofit preschool classrooms into charter campuses that work within the district. DISD already works with various preschool providers for some prekindergarten classes, and making them in-district charter schools would allow them to get more state funding, administrators said at a Thursday board briefing. But calling anything in DISD a "charter" has tempers flaring. Critics say that's just a first step to privatizing public education. Trustees spent nearly three hours heatedly debating just how DISD would use a new state law aimed at spurring charter partnerships. Charter schools, in general, are public schools that are run by independent operators. But DISD wants to use a provision in a 2017 law that will allow the district to create its own charter campuses within the district that would be overseen by nonprofit partners.   Continue reading...