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Few Big-Name Charter Operators Opt for Federal 'Restart' Grants

Garrison Middle School 6th grade math teacher Mr. Rommel Soriano, right, hands a smart board marker to 6th grader Imani Johnson during class on Feb. 24. Last summer, the management of Garrison Middle School was taken over by Global Partnership Schools, a private company charged with turning the formerly underperforming school around. Mr. Soriano was one of the teachers who, after reapplying for his job, got it back.

—Matt Roth for Education Week

Small operators, private companies, and nonprofits fill the gap

By Mary Ann Zehr

Some of the nation’s largest and best-known charter-management organizations have not jumped at the opportunity to “restart” schools with federal economic-stimulus money, but a wide range of smaller charter operators, private for-profit companies, and nonprofit groups has filled the gap.

Only about 5 percent of schools receiving School Improvement Grants as part of the federal economic-stimulus package chose to turn around schools with the widely touted restart model, the only option out of four that enables school districts to turn schools over to charter operators as part of the U.S. Department of Education’s $3.5 billion grant competition.

The small proportion of restarts is an indication that most school districts don’t want to take on the political and implementation challenges of shutting down low-performing schools and starting over, said Todd Ziebarth, the vice president for state advocacy and support for the Washington-based National Alliance for Public Charter Schools. “Charter schools in and of themselves are controversial in a number of places. Now you add to that, ‘We’re going to take a school that’s been here for 40 years that’s struggling and shut it down and turn it over to a charter-management organization,’ and you are amping up...