The rightwing group ALEC has long promoted state charter appeals board so that charters turned down by local boards can appeal to a friendly Governor-appointed state board.

Philadelphia’s School Reform Commission authorized five new charters of some three dozen proposed.

Guess what?

“Charter school providers turned down in Philly can make a case before state appeals board

WHYY Newsworks BY BILL HANGLEY FEBRUARY 19, 2015

Marc Mannella is a veteran of the Philadelphia education reform movement, but his education in the finer points of charter law may have only just begun. “One way to look at tonight was that it was a night only lawyers could love,” said Mannella on Wednesday, after the School Reform Commission shot down two of his three proposed new charter schools. As the head of KIPP Philadelphia, Mannella must now decide whether to turn those lawyers loose. Until this year, the SRC had the final say on Philadelphia charters. But thanks to an amendment included in last summer’s cigarette tax bill, charter providers can now appeal the SRC’s decisions to the state’s Charter Appeal Board. It’s that board that now has the final say over which charters open, and which ones close.

http://www.newsworks.org/index.php/local//item/78701-charter-school-providers-turned-down-in-philly-can-make-a-case-before-state-appeals-board/