New Jersey’s high court on Tuesday upheld the state’s 2016 decision to allow several Newark charter schools to expand, rejecting a bid to reverse the schools’ growth.
The Education Law Center filed the suit back in 2016 opposing the state’s decision to allow the charter schools to enroll an additional 8500 students. The group said would it harm district students by diverting money to charter schools and intensifying segregation. Harry Lee, President of the New Jersey Charter School Association says that’s just not the case.
“Public Charter Schools in Newark are an integral part of the education system there and that the continued expansion of Newark charters has actually improved the quality of the overall public education system in the city.”
In the decision the court reaffirmed that the state must consider whether a new or expanding charter school would promote segregation. It also upheld a prior ruling that the state must analyze whether charter expansion would hurt a school district’s budget — but only if the district raises that concern.
