Charter Reform Research Articles

A Tale of Two Systems: Choice and Equity in the District of Columbia’s Charter Schools

Advocates often predict that school choice policies will expand access to high-quality schools, particularly for marginalized communities. To interrogate this assumption, we employed a sequential mixed-methods analysis examining the state of charter reform in the District of Columbia. We observed that stakeholders consistently defined equity as uniform processes, evident in data distribution and enrollment practices. We also uncovered persistent disparities in where students live versus learn. We conclude that race-neutral conceptions of equity may hinder attempts to improve school access by ignoring structural inequalities tied to race, place, and income and by overlooking privileged households’ efforts to remain separate.

Zones of Nonbeing: Abjection, White Accumulation, and Neoliberal School Reform

Background/Context: Jean Anyon’s work provides a powerful intervention in the study of education with her attention to political economy and the social contexts of education. Mainstream neoliberal charter reform arguments often counter Anyon’s work by suggesting a “no excuse” ideology, which often ignores structural realities facing youth. Over the decades, charter schools have garnered bipartisan interest and expanded significantly. Following Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans was one such site where the expansion and experimentation with charter schools has taken place. Utilizing the restructuring of New Orleans after Katrina as a site for examination, this article builds from a larger yearlong qualitative critical race case study on the reproduction of White dominance via the charter school authorization and application process. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study: Utilizing the educational restructuring of New Orleans post-Katrina, this article aims to illustrate the interconnectedness of political economy and race. Extending Anyon’s analysis of political economy, the article focuses on the neoliberal restructuring of New Orleans education after Hurricane Katrina to illustrate how the notions of abjection and zones of nonbeing form a guiding constellation for the accumulation and solidification of White power and capital. Research Design/Data Collection and Analysis: This article builds off a larger yearlong qualitative critical race case study on the reproduction of White racial educational dominance in post-Katrina New Orleans. Interviews and student artifacts are the central data. Conclusion/Recommendations: The author recommends the grounding of youth voice in educational policy analysis, conceptualization, and implementation; the consideration of how race impacts education; and continued research on the inter-imbrication of race and political economy.

The European Committee of Social Rights’ stance on the Greek austerity measures: a pan-European wake-up call for a European Social Charter Reform

The European Committee of Social Rights’ stance on the Greek austerity measures: a pan-European wake-up call for a European Social Charter Reform

When the Personal Vote Is Not Enough: The Failure of Charter Reform in Columbia, South Carolina

The choice of city structure is one of the most important choices that citizens and elected representatives face in local government. While we know a good deal about the macro-level trends in a city structure, we know comparatively less about why residents in individual cities may opt for one structure or another. In this paper, we focus on the unsuccessful 2013 single-issue referendum in Columbia, South Carolina, addressing why, despite support from key players, the city chose not to adopt a strong-mayor form of government. Using precinct-level data, we find support for the personal vote hypothesis. We discover that support for the sitting mayor is a significant predictor of support for reform, although the lack of voter mobilization city-wide may be too much of a factor for reform advocates to overcome. This investigation leads us to a number of conclusions that are relevant for both academics and practitioners who want to understand structural change in local government.

As Pilhas de Pesos de Dom Manuel I: Contributo para a sua caracterização, inventariação e avaliação

In the scope of an important charter reform, Manuel I of Portugal was particularly careful regarding weights, distributing bronze standards to a significant number of counties. The existence of these standards, which are in the form of nested cup weights (or piles) and are dated of 1499, is well known. However, there isn’t an exhaustive inventory of the extant standards and it remains largely unknown which counties actually acquired such standards. We begin by presenting a brief synthesis on the manueline reform of weights. The general characteristics of the manueline standards are identified and the chronology of their production is discussed. Based on literary sources, including the reports of the evaluations carried out in 1857-1860, and direct search in museums, it was possible to identify the existence of 128 manueline piles of weights and, for 73 of them, the counties to which they belonged. It was also possible to gather evaluations for 265 weight pieces from 42 piles. Based on these evaluations, an estimate of the manueline arratel was computed.

Reforming the Security Council through a Code of Conduct: A Sisyphean Task?

AbstractThe failure of the UN Security Council to adequately and effectively address the Syrian crisis has brought renewed scrutiny to the veto and its capricious use during mass atrocity situations. In response to these concerns, the idea of a code of conduct to regulate the exercise of the veto during humanitarian situations is now being increasingly advanced by several states, including France and the United Kingdom. This paper disputes the utility of such a code and argues that it would not make any significant difference to the way mass atrocity crimes are addressed. I examine three core arguments often extended to justify the merit and the utility of the norm: the circumvention argument, the naming and shaming argument, and the Charter reform argument. I show how each of these arguments is undermined by mistaken notions about the norm's procedural effectiveness, and the role the veto plays in cases of what Simon Chesterman calls “inhumanitarian noninterventions.” Additionally, drawing on interviews conducted with diplomats at the United Nations in New York, I present evidence that resistance to a code of conduct comes not only from the permanent five members of the Council but also from the nonpermanent members, further imperiling the idea's capacity to effect change. Ultimately, I contend that the current global effort to curtail the influence of the veto is nothing more than a journey down the rabbit hole: exciting, but ultimately distracting.

Robert Wagner and the rise of New York City's plebiscitary mayoralty: the tamer of the Tammany tiger

1. Introduction: Robert F. Wagner, the Forgotten Mayor 2. The Concept of the 'Plebiscitary Mayoralty' i. The Incomplete New Deal in New York 3. Mayor Robert F. Wagner and the Unfinished Business of the New Deal i. Wagner and Organized Labor ii. Wagner and the Welfare State iii. Wagner and Fiscal Policy 4. The Break: The Fight for Charter Reform and the 1961 Mayoral Election i. Wagner, the Democratic Party and the 1961 Mayoral Campaign 5. The New Wagner Mayoralty and the Shaping of Modern New York 6. In the Shadow of Wagner: Plebiscitary Politics in New York City i. The Institutional Mayoralty ii. The Civic Mayoralty iii. The de Blasio Moment

Ethics Reform in New Orleans: Progress And Problems Ten Years Post-Katrina

The article examines three New Orleans ethics entities created ten years ago in the wake of Hurricane Katrina — the Office of Inspector General (OIG), the Office of Independent Police Monitor (OIPM), and the Ethics Review Board (ERB). The OIG and OIPM are oversight bodies; only the ERB has enforcement power.The OIG proved successful and productive, issuing many reports and claiming city government savings of nearly $60,000,000. The presence of a well-regarded OIG in Orleans Parish has provoked consideration and implementation of the concept in adjacent parishes.The OIPM instituted a police-community mediation program, engaged with a federal consent decree, and monitored critical incident reports. But the OIPM’s effectiveness would be enhanced by charter reform, giving the office financial and operational independence.The ERB functioned well in selecting the first two Inspectors General in 2007 and 2009. But during 2010-2014 the ERB declined to exercise its ethics enforcement authority; repeatedly violated the open meetings law; neglected the opportunity to recommend improvements to the city ethics code; and fell out of compliance with diversity requirements, lacking any women, Hispanics, or Asians among its membership. Its problems were not structural or systemic; all can be addressed by improved policy decisions and performance.The article recommends several strategies for improving overall functioning of the city’s ethics entities and concludes that New Orleans is a stronger, more resilient community because of the three local ethics bodies, all of which only began operating post-Katrina.

To Charter or Not to Charter: Developing a Testable Model of Charter Authorization and Renewal Decisions

The authorizers of charter schools are an understudied piece of the charter reform process. The local school boards, state agencies, and higher education institutions that act as authorizers play a significant role in the market, determining which operators get to enter the market and which are forced to exit. This article provides an economics-based framework for understanding the objectives of authorizers that can be used to test empirically the relative importance of three main objectives: student achievement, parental satisfaction, and political influence. Which of these objectives authorizers pursue could have a significant impact on which schools are authorized and renewed and therefore on the success of the charter schools generally.

Mapping the terrain: Teach For America, charter school reform, and corporate sponsorship

In this paper we illustrate the relationships between Teach For America (TFA) and federal charter school reform to interrogate how policy decisions are shaped by networks of individuals, organizations, and private corporations. We use policy network analysis to create a visual representation of TFA’s key role in developing and connecting personnel, political support, and financial backing for charter reform. Next we examine how the networks unfold at a local level by zooming in on a case study of New Orleans. By mapping out these connections, we hope to provide a foundation for further investigation of how this network affects policies.

Modifying the UN Charter through Subsequent Practice: Prospects for the Charter's Revitalisation

Despite the vast challenges facing the United Nations in its ever expanding mandate, the task of reforming the organisation remains encumbered by its onerous amendment procedures. Recent attempts to instigate formal changes to the Charter of the United Nations have all failed. In this context, it is argued that greater attention should be paid to the other ways in which changes can be made to the Charter. The subsequent practice of member states and organs can play an important role in informing changes to the Charter's application. The idea that treaties can be modified through subsequent practice is not new under international law. While it was rejected as a principle that should be codified under the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, its utility is being presently re-considered by the International Law Commission. However, the functional potential of this doctrine vis-à-vis the Charter has attracted little academic scrutiny. This article pre-empts some of the issues that will be examined by the Commission, arguing that it is time to expand the role of subsequent practice, by not only using practice to inform interpretations to the Charter, but to embrace the opportunity for amendments to be also made through the subsequent practice of parties. This approach promises to open up greater prospects for the Charter's revitalisation. If the conditions for modification are carefully considered, the doctrine can be a useful instrument for Charter reform.

More than mayor or manager: campaigns to change form of government in America's large cities

Preface Introduction: Framing Constitutional Contests in Large CitiesJames H. Svara and Douglas J. Watson Part I: Change from Council-Manager to Mayor-Council Form 2. St. Petersburg: Easing into a Strong-Mayor GovernmentJ. Edwin Benton, Donald C. Menzel, and Darryl Paulson 3. Spokane: Development Debate Sparks Government DebateWendy L. Hassett 4. Hartford: Politics Trumps Professionalism.Wendy L. Hassett 5. Richmond: Implementation and Experience with Strong Mayor Form of GovernmentNelson Wikstrom 6. San Diego: Switch from Reform to RepresentativeGlen W. Sparrow 7. Oakland: The Power of Celebrity? Explaining Strong-Mayor Charter ReformMegan Mullin Part II: Rejected change from Council-Manager to Mayor-Council Form 8. Kansas City: The Evolution of Council-Manager GovernmentKimberly Nelson and Curtis Wood 9. Grand Rapids: A Lack of Enthusiasm for Change in the Council-Manager FormEric S. Zemmering 10. Dallas: The Survival of Council-Manager GovernmentKaren M. Jarrell 11. Cincinnati: Charter Conflict and ConsensusJohn T. Spence Part III: Change from Mayor-Council to Council-Manager 12. El Paso: Professionalism over Politics in the Shift to Council-Manager GovernmentLarry Terry 13. Topeka: Council-Manager Redux Finding Balance in the Politics-Administration DichotomyR. Paul Battaglio, Jr. Part IV: Rejected Change to Mayor-Council Form from Commission and Weak Mayor 14. St. Louis: Deja Vu All over Again: Charter Reform FailsRobert Cropf, Todd Swanstrom, and Scott Krummenacher 15. Portland: Keep Portland Weird, Retaining the Commission Form of GovernmentDoug Morgan, Masami Nishishiba, and Dan Vizzini 16. Conclusion: Distinct Factors and Common Themes in Change of Form ReferendaJames H. Svara and Douglas J. Watson List of Contributors Index

What Charter Reform Commissions Can Teach Us About a Proposed Constitutional Convention in California

THE CALIFORNIA Journal of Politics & Policy Volume 2, Issue 2 What Charter Reform Commissions Can Teach Us About a Proposed Constitutional Convention in California Raphael J. Sonenshein California State University, Fullerton Abstract With all that is at stake in reforming the government of the nation’s largest state, with responsibility for the welfare of 38 million Californians, we know very little about how to make a constitutional convention work. How large should the convention be? Should delegates be elected or appointed? What issues should be on the agenda? How can the convention delegates obtain expert information? Who will organize and lead the convention? Remarkably, there is virtually no discussion of the far more common experience by which local and some state governments in California and throughout the nation have reformed governance structures: the charter reform commission. Such commissions have routinely dealt with these is- sues for more than a hundred years and have managed to update and adapt munici- pal government with great success. KEYWORDS: constitutional reform, legislative reform, political reform, Califor- nia government, term limits www.bepress.com/cjpp

What Charter Reform Commissions Can Teach Us About a Proposed Constitutional Convention in California

What Charter Reform Commissions Can Teach Us About a Proposed Constitutional Convention in California

The Future of the Charter of the United Nations

Introduction I. The Creation and the Legal Nature of the Charter 1. Creation 2. Legal Nature II. The United Nations, Then and Now 1. Universal Membership 2. The End of Colonialism and the Emergence of the North-South Divide 3. From a “Negative” to a “Positive” Concept of Peace 4. Human Security as well as State Security 5. The End of the Cold War 6. The Impact of September 11th 7. The UN in a Multi-Actor World III. Applying, Interpreting and de facto Modifying the Charter 1. Voting Procedure in the UN Security Council 2. Uniting for Peace Procedure and the Expansion of the General Assembly’s Powers 3. Collective Diplomacy and Peacekeeping 4. The Concept of a Threat to Peace 5. Development Co-operation and Environmental Conservation as New Objectives 6. Authorising Coalitions of the Able and Willing to Use Force 7. Re-Interpreting the Right to Self-Defence 8. Expansion of Security Council Powers 9. The Emergence of the Responsibility to Protect Citizens IV. The Agenda for Charter Reform at the World Summit of September 2005 1. Reform of the Security Council 2. Human Rights: Replacement of the Commission by a Council 3. The Establishment of the Peacebuilding Commission 4. Clearing Away the Dead Wood in the Charter V. Final Observations: The United Nations of the Future and the Future of the Charter

The city at stake: secession, reform, and the battle for Los Angeles

List of Maps ix List of Tables xi Preface: Reform under the Gun xiii Acknowledgments xix PART ONE: The Dynamics of Urban Reform CHAPTER ONE The Politics of Reform: The New Institutionalism Meets the New Diversity 3 CHAPTER TWO Studying Los Angeles Politics 14 PART TWO: The Roots of Los Angeles Charter Reform CHAPTER THREE Reform, Los Angeles Style 29 CHAPTER FOUR Richard Riordan and Conservative Reform 57 CHAPTER FIVE Valley Secession and the Suburban Revolt 72 CHAPTER SIX Charter Reform: The Cure for Secession? 84 PART THREE: The Battle over the Charter CHAPTER SEVEN The 1997 Municipal Elections and the Politics of Charter Reform 95 CHAPTER EIGHT The Charter Reform Commissions 104 CHAPTER NINE The Inside Game: Mayoral Authority 110 CHAPTER TEN The Inside Game: Police Reform 123 CHAPTER ELEVEN The Outside Game: The Politics of Participation 130 PART FOUR: The Unified Charter CHAPTER TWELVE The Creation of the Unified Charter 151 CHAPTER THIRTEEN The Fall and Rise of the Unified Charter 163 CHAPTER FOURTEEN The Campaign for the Unified Charter 185 PART FIVE: The Battle over Secession CHAPTER FIFTEEN Implementation 209 CHAPTER SIXTEEN The 2001 Municipal Elections 215 CHAPTER SEVENTEEN The Vote on Secession 227 PART SIX: The Future of Urban Reform CHAPTER EIGHTEEN Toward a Reform Regime: Governing Postsecession Los Angeles 241 CHAPTER NINETEEN Conclusions and Implications: Reform, Twenty-First-Century Style 251 APPENDIX ONE Summary of the Charter Proposal 267 APPENDIX TWO Using Ecological Inference Model to Verify Results 275 Bibliography 279 Index 293

Déjà Vu all over again: Charter reform fails in St. Louis

Editor's note: There is a lively ongoing debate in this country over the forms of organization and the distribution of powers within local government, especially when it comes to the critical question of mayoral leadership. The following essay is an account of a failed attempt to change St. Louis's city charter. Because the National Civic League's Community Services program played a role in facilitating the discussion leading up to the proposal of charter amendments, we would like to emphasize that as with most essays and reports published in this journal, the analysis and conclusions herein represent the perspectives of the authors, or in some cases the participants they interviewed, and not necessarily those of National Civic League staff. We hope this essay will stimulate further discussion and debate on these critical issues of concern.

The Limited and Contrary Uses of County Charter Reform: Two California Cases

The Limited and Contrary Uses of County Charter Reform: Two California Cases

Second metropolis: pragmatic pluralism in Gilded Age Chicago, Silver Age Moscow, and Meiji Osaka

By exploring and comparing North America's, Russia's, and Japan's second cities of a century ago-Chicago, Moscow, and Osaka- Second Metropolis discloses the extent to which social fragmentation, frequently viewed as an obstacle to democratic development, actually fostered pluralistic public policies. Such policies are explored through six case studies-the politics of street railways and charter reform in Chicago, adult education and housing in Moscow, and harbor revitalization and poverty alleviation in Osaka-that illustrate how even those with massive political and economic power were stymied by the complexity of their communities. Chicago, Moscow, and Osaka, though the products of very different nations and cultures, nonetheless shared an important experience of inclusive politics during an era of extraordinary growth and social diversity. The success of all three cities, which went well beyond mere survival, rested on a distinctive political resource: pragmatic pluralism.

Charter Reform and the Education Bureaucracy: Lessons from New York State

Can state and local agencies give the same high priority to providing support and technical assistance to charter schools as they currently give to their public responsibility to prevent fiscal malfeasance and school failure? If so, Ms. Ascher and Mr. Greenberg point out, these frequently maligned agencies could play a helpful role in stimulating the creation of good charter schools. ACROSS the U.S., charter school reform has created new public schools relieved of some of the constraints under which conventional public schools have operated. While charter laws in different states have provided for varying degrees of deregulation, the reform has also been vulnerable to bureaucratic pressures. We trace some of these pressures as they have played out in New York State, focusing particularly on the charter school application process. Since charter schools are created by their charters, which are awarded as a result of the application review process, both the process and the charter application form are key to shaping the instruction and operations of charter schools. Although there are currently three charter school authorizers in New York, our analysis focuses on the interaction between two: the charter school office of the Board of Education of the City of New York1 and the New York State Education Department's charter school office. There are three reasons for this focus. First, our experience is richest in this area. One of us worked for the chancellor of the New York City Public Schools, heading the charter school initiative for the first two years after the law's enactment in December 1998; the other has been studying charter reform in New York City since fall 1999. Second, we are interested in the implementation of a new reform by mature bureaucracies. The Charter School Institute of the State University of New York, the third authorizer, was newly formed as a result of the legislation. Although its brief history is interesting, it illustrates the evolution of a new and developing organization and so falls outside the purpose of this analysis. Third, we are curious about the paradox of legislation that promises diminished interference but at the same time relies on educational bureaucracies for its implementation. Indeed, any statewide reform in education policy -- even charter reform, which aims to do away with levels of bureaucratic interference -- depends upon a bureaucracy for implementation. New York's Charter Legislation The charter school law in New York State was passed amid the kind of politically charged environment that has often accompanied education reform in general -- and particularly charter school reform. Two alternative bills, one proposed by the Republican governor and a second proposed by a Democratic assemblyman, were stalled for several years because of opposition by the teacher unions, the New York State School Boards Association, and other groups. When New York's charter law was finally passed without a hearing in December 1998, it was the governor's version, and the bill's success was tied to giving legislators a 38% pay raise.2 New York's charter law reflected the governor's and the legislature's interest in avoiding some of the obstacles to charter reform that had already been identified in other states. For example, education agencies in several states had developed regulations that restricted charter reform. Thus one intent of New York's law was to outflank the state's policy and ministerial bodies: the New York State Board of Regents (the Regents), which oversees education in the state, and its administrative arm, the state education department. New York's law sharply curtails the regulatory power of the Regents and the state department regarding charter schools. In addition, while allowing the Regents, along with any school board in the state and the chancellor of the New York City Public Schools, to authorize charter schools, the law also created a new authorizer, the trustees of the State University of New York (SUNY). …