Education

NC DPI extends Principal of the Year eligibility to charter school leaders

Charter school teachers are already included in the Burroughs Wellcome Fund North Carolina Teacher of the Year program. In that program, charter schools are a division, alongside eight geographical regions, that selects its own finalist for the award.

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By
Emily Walkenhorst
, WRAL education reporter

Principals of charter schools will now be eligible for the Wells Fargo North Carolina Principal of the Year award, the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction announced Tuesday.

Charter school teachers are already included in the Burroughs Wellcome Fund North Carolina Teacher of the Year program. In that program, charter schools are a division, alongside eight geographical regions, that selects its own finalist for the award.

That’s how the principal of the year program will now operate, as well.

Both awards come with a two-year advisory appointment to the North Carolina State Board of Education, which sets many of the state’s education policies.

Tuesday was the 25th anniversary of North Carolina’s law authorizing charter schools.

Lawmakers and others commemorated the anniversary in a news conference Tuesday afternoon, in which they re-emphasized their stance on “school choice” and touted charter schools’ abilities to try new ways of educating children.

North Carolina State Superintendent Catherine Truitt said parents are “consumers” in the K-12 education realm, a role that’s only been buoyed by the COVID-19 pandemic’s ensuing education challenges.

Parents know what is going on in their children’s schools and should have a say in where their children go to school, Truitt said, whether for academic or other reasons.

Others Tuesday contended that charter schools are more easily held accountable by families, who choose to enroll or disenroll.

Pushback against charter schools has come from those arguing that they take away resources from traditional public schools and don’t always perform better.

North Carolina now has about 200 charter schools. Charter schools are often, but not always, smaller than traditional public schools. They don’t have elected school boards and aren’t subject to all of the same requirements as traditional public schools, which, for example, must abide by stricter calendar rules.

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