BY OLYMPIA MEOLA

Gov. Bob McDonnell is hosting an invitation-only charter school program on Tuesday for Virginia school leaders to meet with representatives from high-performing charter programs around the country.

Innovate to Educate: Chartering the Course for Virginia will be held Tuesday at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, and McDonnell is scheduled to attend a reception there in the evening.  

The governor is a strong advocate for charter schools and has pushed to increase the number of public charters in the state. He introduced legislation in his first General Assembly session as governor to shift approval of charter-school contracts from local school boards, which are elected, to the Virginia Board of Education, whose members are appointed by the governor.

It outraged education associations, and before long, the groups hammered out a compromise that left final authority with the local school boards but has the Board of Education vetting the applications first.

Tuesday’s program is “being held to exchange ideas with the superintendents and charter school experts about ways to enhance the charter school program in Virginia,” said McDonnell spokesman Jeff Caldwell.

Members of the Virginia Board of Education were invited, as were school superintendents from the state’s eight regions, leadership from Virginia Association of School Superintendents and representatives from the top 15-20 high performing charter schools in the country, according to Caldwell.