Charter news & views

1. Miami Dade plans to open four new public schools, two replacement high schools and 13 new charter schools this fall. Three of the charter schools will be multi-shift blended models operated by Mavericks in Education.

2. I’m seeing more interest in Hebrew language schools in NY, NJ, DC as well as FL (as reported in this story)

3. Mosaica co-founders Gene and Dawn Eidelman won a career achievement award at the recent Education Industry Association. Dawn is the architect of Paragon, Mosaica’s innovative K-8 liberal arts curriculum.

4. National Heritage Academies has quietly become the largest for-profit charter management organization. The run consistently strong K-8 schools mostly in the upper mid-west. Bell, an SES provider, runs summer schools for NHA and is part of the well kept secret sauce.

5. NCSL adopted a lame policy attacking charter schools and told USED to get off their backs—“just send us more money!”. A number of their claims are ridiculous (i.e., charters are re-segregating schools). You can guess where support for this policy came from—Democrats Not for Education Reform.