For over 22 years charter schools have existed in this country yet I am still asked the question: “Just what is a charter school?” Or worse, someone thinks they know what it is and their thoughts are far off base.
Not knowing and misinformation about charter schools is a common experience for many. For those that do know, many in that group are divided about the values or dangers of the role charter schools play in education.
A charter school is a form of public education. Each state legislates how the school is granted a charter to begin receiving public funds and how the school is held accountable. Students enrolled in a charter school are the same as if they were enrolled in that state’s traditional public school. Academic requirements, graduation requirements and all federal laws for public education are basically the same for a charter school student. So, why bother? Why have two separate education systems?
Well, initially the thought was that by creating competition in the public school marketplace, parents were given a choice. No longer was expensive private school tuition or homeschooling the only option a family had. Charter schools were set loose to become innovative. Many were created with the mission to replicate a better version of traditional schools. Others were created with a specific mission of reaching a targeted group of students whose needs might not be met in a larger system. For instance, one school in Texas was initially created to provide public school for a travelling group of student performers. That school has since evolved to include any student performer. Currently the trend seems to be aimed at reaching at-risk students that are not successful in traditional environments.
This education experiment has unleashed a plethora of problems. Local authorities charged with overseeing charters weren’t clear what the rules would be and they issued charters to well-meaning educators that most often were not even told what those rules were either. Everyone charged out of the gate with best intentions. Rules changed, communication was weak or non-existing, training was poor and these infants in public education were left to run before they could walk and compete with public schools that in many case were in existence for over 100 years.
Charter holders recall events when their schools were sent state agency auditors to examine the school when the auditors themselves did not know what a charter school was. Yet their reports would stand as the definitive evaluation of whether or not the school was performing to the standards that were required, standards that were not even applicable to the school in question.
In spite of all the growing pains, successful stories have sprung from many of the nations’ charter school students and their families. Families without hope found success in the local community charter school specialized to meet their needs. Charters are after all a school of choice, so many would ask why they are not left to free enterprise and rather than be held to the same standards as a traditional school, why not just let the free market determine their sustainability? Why drain precious resources evaluating a school when the parents and students are fully capable of deciding?
Then there is the much more controversial question. Are charter schools a danger to public education, as we know it? Quite possibly. Competition and choice do bring change. In this instance, the controversy lies in whether or not such change will benefit our futures. While small community schools were the first wave of charter education, large corporate management companies have begun to see the financial benefit of owning and operating “chain” schools across the country. A small hand full of large investor/philanthropists such as the Walton’s (WalMart), the Dell foundation, the Gates Foundation and Michael Milken (formerly known as the junk bond king) are all heavily vested in the charter school industry.
With so much controversy, so much positive and negative publicity, it is a challenge for thesmall school model that was initially thought of as incubators of innovation in public education. Today’s parent has access to so much information to make informed decisions about their child’s school. Unfortunately, they may be reading more misinformation than they realize.
