Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Charter Schools



      The idea of charter schools has been a controversial topic since it originated in 1988.  Mr. Ray Budde established charter schools in an attempt to reform public schools.  The NJ Department of Education states the charter school law was passed to give parents a choice for their children's education and intended to:  improve student learning and achievement, increase the availability of choice to parents and students when selecting a learning environment, encourage the use of different and innovative learning methods, establish a new system of accountability for schools, make the school the unit for educational improvement, and establish new professional opportunities for teachers.  In 1991, Minnesota was the first state to pass a charter school law and in 1992, California followed.  Katherine Merseth states, in her book entitled Inside Urban Charter Schools, "Charter schools are similar to traditional public schools in several ways: they receive government funds to operate, they may not engage in religious instruction, and they are open to all interested students."  

While charter schools have similarities to the traditional public schools, they also have differences.  For example, a group of private individuals may open and govern a charter school, the leaders of these organizations may have little or no formal training in education, many charter school founders are nonprofit entrepreneurs and these are schools of choice.  Charter schools are primary or secondary schools founded by nonprofit groups, universities, government entities, teachers, parents, or activist who feel restricted by the traditional public school setting.  These schools are authorized to function once they have received a charter, a statutorily defined performance contract outlining and stating the schools vision, mission, goals, program, methods of assessments and methods to measure success.  These schools make up their own rules and regulations, are not governed by the statutes that apply to other public schools, and are also considered nonprofit entities. Students attending charter schools are there by choice and are not subject to pay tuition.  Although their enrollment is based on a lottery-based system, the lottery is said to be open to all students.  In 2008, it was reported by the survey of US charter schools, that 59% of charter schools had a waiting list averaging 198 students.  
There are many pros and cons to charter schools.
Pros
Cons
Provide families with public school choice options giving parents the ability to choose the school best suited for their child
Small in size and have limited numbers so they can only provide some families with public school choice options, raising issues of fairness and equity
Can act as laboratories of reform identifying successful practices that could be replicated by traditional district public schools
Successful reform models such as New American Schools and Core Knowledge have already been identified.  Why not attempt these reforms in existing schools?  If rules and regulations are so burdensome, they should be waived for all public schools.
Competition within the school system is created, pressuring districts to reassess their educational practices
Have an unfair advantage when competing against district public schools since they tend to be smaller and free from regulations
Will lead to overall systemic reform through the pressure and competition of the choice mechanism
Too limited in scope to adequately pressure the entire public school system
Unlike traditional public schools are held accountable; if they do not perform, they are not renewed
Are freed from rules and regulations intended to ensure quality in traditional public school
Charter schools were instituted to reform tradition public schools, however, it will continue to be an argumentative topic.  Even though most charter schools have waiting list and it seems as if they are better than the traditional public school, as of March 2009, 12.5%, over 5000 US charter schools have closed due to problems in one or more of the following areas: academic, financial and managerial.  Still as of September 2012, there are over 100 charter schools serving approximately 25,000 students in New Jersey.  Each charter school's rate of success is unique.  Therefore, before choosing a charter, it important to learn about the particular school of interest.

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