(AP) – More than half of the nine organizations that have
submitted applications to open 10 charter schools in the 2018-2019 school year
are proposing locations in the Greater Little Rock and Pine Bluff areas.
The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reports that the Arkansas Department of
Education will now review the applications before the state Charter Authorizing
Panel sees them in August. Those decisions will then go to the state Board of
Education, which gives the final approval, in the fall.
The applications come at a time when six of the Little Rock School District’s
48 schools have been labeled as being in academic distress for three years of
poor performance on state math and literacy tests.
Charter schools are taxpayer-supported institutions operated by an independent
board of directors.
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