A story in today’s Northwest Arkansas Times reports that Arkansas’ charter school law is weak relative to other states.  The Center for Education Reform gave the state’s charter law a “D.”  The only states to receive “A”s were California and Minnesota. Here is an excerpt from the NWA Times article:

Arkansas’ charter school law doesn’t fare well in national reports — at least two such reports in recent months — which comes as no surprise to several who follow charter school development in the state and around the country.

Jay Greene, who heads the Department of Education Reform at the University of Arkansas, wasn’t surprised by the “D” letter grade given to the charter school law by the Center for Education Reform, a national nonprofit organization that promotes charter schools and school choice.

Arkansas is one of 13 states to receive Ds from the Center for Education Reform. The state ranked 31st among the 40 states which allow charter schools.

“Arkansas has a very weak law,” Greene said Wednesday, citing the level of funding, the low number of charters operating in the state and the fact that Arkansas has only a single authorizer — the Arkansas Board of Education — that can approve charter schools.”

The good news? We are still ahead of Mississippi, who ranked weakest in the nation.

We have been critical of the law and the State Board’s implementation of it.  You can check out our Op-Ed in the Dem-Gaz here and a couple of our previous blog posts  here and here.  It seems we have been driving the charter school conversation inside Arkansas as of late.