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.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Government by the Kochs, for the Kochs…
This is a further attempt to stack the deck in favor of privatization. Corporate America will have its way by hook or crook.
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.
Perfected legislative shell game. Bury VIP directives in a totally unrelated bill.
Yes, thanks to the last minute addition to the cigarette tax approval bill, which had been batted about like a ball of yarn by our state legislature from the time our mayor signed the city council bill on June 25, 2013, until our governor signed the state bill on September 24, 2014, charters can now appeal School District of Philadelphia (SDP) denials to the state.
Basically, the politicians waited until the district and its supporters were completely desperate, then added the section regarding charters’ right to appeal. Additionally, a June 30, 2019 expiration date for the cigarette tax was added. The charters’ right to appeal will NOT expire.
To be clear, charters that are denied by the School Reform Commission (SRC), the STATE regulatory body that oversees the SDP, will have the right to appeal to the STATE Charter Appeal Board. This board is not new. Previously, however, since the STATE is already making the decisions here in Philadelphia, charters applying to the SRC did not have access to this process
Should this board, chaired by the Secretary of Education (currently the only member NOT appointed by Corbett) and comprised of six appointed members (including by law: an academic, a charter school parent, a business owner, a member of a public school board, a representative of the PA Board of Ed, a member of the state teachers union) choose to reverse any or all of the SRC’s denials and allow them to open schools, the SDP will be on the hook for the bill.
All of this while the STATE urges the SDP to get its finances in order.