Lawyers for the Princeton Public Schools have filed a 140-page document with the New Jersey Commissioner of Education opposing the expansion of the charter school.
The district is requesting that the commissioner not consider the application for expansion at all because it claims the board of trustees for the charter school violated the state’s open public meetings act when it passed a resolution to apply to expand the school by 76 students and add a weighted lottery system to benefit economically disadvantaged students.
are among the very best in the nation by any measure, there is no justification for the expansion based on educational quality or opportunity.
Using a “weighted student” measure developed by charter school opponent and Julia Sass Rubin of Rutgers University, the district claims the charter school and public schools spend the same amount per pupil. The charter school has repeatedly disputed Rubin’s numbers and claims.
District officials argue in the document that the expansion request will have a significant financial impact on the district of more than $1 million annually that “will unnecessarily harm and threaten the District’s ability to provide an excellent education for its students.”
Finally, the Princeton Public Schools argues that the charter school application is contrary to “the original and best policies of the charter school movement, and is harmful to the vast majority of children in Princeton, particularly those most vulnerable children that PCS claims to want to help.”
Krystal Knapp is the founding editor of Planet Princeton. Follow her on Twitter @krystalknapp. She can be reached via email at editor AT planetprinceton.com. Send all letters to the editor and press releases to that email address.