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The Philadelphia Board of Education voted Thursday to approve the city’s first new charter school in nearly a decade.
At a tense board meeting in a packed room, board members said they were “obligated” to approve the Early College Charter School of Philadelphia — since the application met all of the standards set by the state charter school law. Still, several members expressed serious reservations about the new school’s impact on the district’s budget.
The board approved the school in an 8-1 vote. Early College Charter is the first new charter school the board has approved since it regained local control in 2018. The vote represents a turning point for education in Philadelphia and a big win for the city’s charter school community and its supporters, who have criticized the board’s resistance to new charters and other ways it’s approached the charter sector. Charter critics counter that the publicly funded and privately run schools have fallen far short of their promises to students.
The board previously rejected Early College Charter’s application in February. That decision drew the attention of elected officials and others who questioned the move. The group behind Early College Charter subsequently submitted a revised application before Thursday’s vote.
Board President Reginald Streater remained unsure about his vote until the last moment.
He ultimately voted to approve the application, but cautioned the school’s founders that he hoped this vote would be the “beginning of a constructive relationship” between the school and the district.
“You spoke of excellence,” Streater said to those in the room who applied to open Early College Charter. “Please prove it.”
Before casting his vote, Streater also said Pennsylvania’s charter school law does not address the complexities that the Philly school district is facing, including historic underfunding and a persistent teacher shortage.
More than a dozen charter advocates, parents, politicians, and community activists told board members the school is highly desired and would provide new opportunities for students in need.
“We know what we have submitted meets the intent of the law, and we’ve gone above and beyond what the application asks for,” said Keshema Davidson, who’s on tap to be Early College Charter’s CEO.
Board member Joyce Wilkerson was the lone no vote on Thursday. She said there are empty charter and district seats across the city, and that many schools lack certified special education teachers.
“It is inconceivable to me” that the board would vote to approve a new school amid the district’s “already stressed resources,” Wilkerson said.
The applicants behind Early College Charter say it would be Pennsylvania’s first open-enrollment middle and high school to focus on early college attainment. Students would graduate with a high school diploma, as well as some college credits or an industry-recognized certificate or both, according to the application.
The founders also say their proposed school is built on successful models in other states but has been meticulously tailored to Philly. They say the school would focus on educating underserved students, and that their vision adheres closely to the intended values of Pennsylvania’s charter school law.
But charter critics remained unconvinced on Thursday.
Robin Cooper, president of the Commonwealth Association of School Administrators, Teamsters Local 502, which represents school principals and other school officials, warned that the district has heard promises from charter school leaders before that “seemed too good to be true,” but that resulted in “carnage” for the district.
And LeShawna Coleman, chief of staff for the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers, also pointed to looming district school closures and teacher shortages, telling the board: “It is irresponsible and outrageous that this board would even contemplate authorizing any new charter.”
Early College Charter is now scheduled to open in the fall of 2026.
Critics say Philly’s charter sector rife with broken promises
In the leadup to Thursday’s meeting, one question loomed: If a charter school application meets all of the technical requirements of state law, are board members obligated to approve it, even if they have concerns about the impact on the district?
Thursday’s vote may have answered that question.
At their February meeting, board members said there was a lot to admire about the school’s application, only to reject it.
Before Thursday’s vote, Davidson and Anna Winter, who was also involved in Early College Charter’s application, told Chalkbeat that vote to reject the school’s application galvanized families, as well as political players from both sides of the aisle.
The district’s charter school office told board members Thursday that the school’s revised application addressed all of the concerns that had been raised with the original application.
Although Philly’s school board has not approved a new charter school since 2018 when it regained local control from the state, it has voted to renew charters and expand the number of seats at schools that were already operating.
In the intervening years, the charter sector has experienced scandals, poor academic performance reports, and broken promises. The aspirational Renaissance Charter turnaround program did not result in significant progress. And on the whole, student performance in charter schools is on par with student performance in traditional district schools.
District payments to charters also limit the district’s “ability to manage its expenses,” Fitch Ratings, a credit ratings agency, reported recently.
Since the district can’t raise tax revenue on its own, it has limited power to control its budget. One lever of local control that board members have exercised over the years is denying several charter school applications.
“In this time of uncertainty,” creating new charter schools would be “an imprudent risk for us to take,” Wilkerson said in February when she voted to reject Early College Charter’s application.
But some charters have stood out as models for citywide programs beloved by families and students. And thousands of Philadelphia families continue to enroll their children in charter schools.
Of the district’s roughly 198,300 total students, roughly 64,000 are enrolled in 81 brick-and-mortar charters, and another 14,250 are in cyber charters, according to the latest available district data.
Mayor Cherelle Parker hasn’t explicitly encouraged charter growth, but she has stated she wants to see an end to the “competition” between the school district and charters.
The school board is also revising its process for authorizing charter schools, through an initiative dubbed Project RiSE. The board approved a $300,000 contract with the National Charter Schools Institute on Thursday to “research charter authorizing best practices,” Streater said. But critics have claimed this process has largely taken place behind closed doors.
Some say innovation is crucial for Philadelphia education
Davidson and Winter cast themselves as atypical charter school founders.
They both served in administrative roles at Cristo Rey High School, a well-respected private Catholic school in the city, and don’t have extensive experience in the charter school world.
“We’re brand new, we have no baggage in this game,” Winter said in an interview.
Davidson said she and Winter felt “very strongly” that the school should operate as an open-enrollment public school with no selective criteria.
Philly already has a district school dedicated to programs in which students can earn associates degrees and professional certifications: Parkway Center City. But as a selective admissions school, not everyone gets in.
Early College Charter plans to use the city’s lottery application process for charter schools. But its backers say it will “focus its outreach, recruitment, and marketing” on reaching middle and high school students who live in 17 ZIP codes in which the average income for one adult with no children is below $46,363 before taxes, according to the application.
Davidson said for her and Winter, their intention is not to create a network of charter schools akin to Universal, ASPIRA, or KIPP, which have all been frequent targets of charter critics in Philadelphia.
“Our goal is to bring forth this one, high-quality school” that could serve as a blueprint for any traditional district schools, Davidson said.
Winter and Davidson said they empathize with the board’s position: they’re contemplating school closures while also being asked to approve a new school, but they still believe there is room for a collaborative relationship between Early College and both entities.
“We believe the bar should be very high, and that we should be held accountable to fulfilling the commitment we’re making to families,” Winter said.
Early College Charter’s application also shines a light on bigger questions for Philadelphia education, Winter said.
“Are we open for collaboration? Are we open for innovation? Are we ready to be at the table to talk about how we can improve and offer high-quality schools in our public district?” she said.
At one time, Philly had its own Innovation Network that produced district schools like SLA Beeber, Building 21, and The U School.
But that network no longer exists, district spokesperson Monique Braxton said.
That left Davidson and Winter with one option to open a new public school, they said: start a charter school.
Davidson said concerns about school closures and other budget worries are precisely why new public school models like Early College are needed to help families. She said Philadelphia parents and students should not simply be forced to wait for officials to improve the current system.
“Waiting while we fix things will mean that we have an entire generation of children that have not gotten access to a high-quality education,” Davidson said.
Carly Sitrin is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Philadelphia. Contact Carly at csitrin@chalkbeat.org.
