College of Education to host Rivera roundtable forum on charter school reform

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Pennsylvania Secretary of Education Pedro A. Rivera will be on the Penn State University Park campus on Friday, Nov. 22, to hold a public roundtable on charter school reform. The Penn State College of Education is hosting Rivera and other Pennsylvania Department of Education leaders for the forum, which will be held from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. in Foster Auditorium in Paterno Library.

The forum is one of several the department is holding around the state to gather public comment following the department’s publication of an Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking in August. The department’s regulatory package will address the establishment of charter school entities, the governance and operation of charter school entities and charter school accountability standards.

The department is especially interested in feedback on how the emerging regulatory effort can:

• Support robust charter school authorizing through a model application for proposed charter schools;
• Promote equity and transparency by clarifying charter schools’ responsibilities for student admission and enrollment;
• Safeguard charter school trustees from conflicts of interest and clarify the relationships among charter school boards of trustees, charter management entities and charter school foundations;
• Protect all public-school entities and taxpayers by setting standards for the adequacy and propriety of insurance or other security for charter school entities; and
• Establish and define the generally accepted standards of fiscal management and audit requirements to which charter school entities must adhere.

Comments and information received at this and other forums will be evaluated in the development of the regulatory package, slated for early 2020.

Visitor parking for the event is available in the Nittany Parking Deck, which is a short walk from Paterno Library. There also is a CATA bus stop outside the library entrance on Curtin Road.