Concordia University steps away from charter schools
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Concordia University will stop authorizing charter schools by the end of 2015.
In a letter to the affected schools, Concordia said being an authorizer was "no longer in harmony with the university's mission."
• Related: Problems at St. Paul charter school could lead to tighter state controls
As a result, eight charter schools in the Twin Cities metro area will have to find new authorizers to provide fiscal and academic oversight.
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Gene Piccolo, executive director of the Minnesota Association of Charter Schools, finding a new authorizer will not be easy for the schools that need one.
"With eight schools, that's going to be very tough to find authorizers because a number of authorizers are not taking new schools," he said. "If we have a school that doesn't find one by the middle of next year, what's going to happen to that school? Is it going to close on December 31, 2015?"
• Topic: Education
Under Minnesota law, authorizers oversee the performance of the charter schools they sponsor, but are not involved in their day-to-day operation.
Concordia faced criticism recently because of reports of mismanagement the Community School of Excellence, one of the charters it sponsors in St. Paul.