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Charter Schools a Viable Alternative for Public Education

The Heartland Institute has released a new Research & Commentary package to the media addressing charter schools.

Those concerned with reforming America's public education system are compelled by three goals: parents want their children to receive a quality education, educators want the tools and flexibility to teach, and school boards and governments demand measurable results such as higher test scores and graduation rates.

Oftentimes these goals are presented as exclusive of one another, but as you will learn upon reviewing this R&C , charter schools satisfy all three.

Having a choice makes a difference

Charter school options help parents put educational needs of children first

By Amarrah Smith-Collins

My first year of high school was in a Detroit public school, a prestigious one at that. But when I was unprepared for Renaissance High's rigorous curriculum, I transferred to a charter high school where I was literally in charge of my education.

Fortunately, I had the option to change schools because of Michigan's schools-of-choice and charter school programs. It is an opportunity my family and I have taken advantage of ever since I was little.

Games Charter Opponents Play: How local school boards—and their allies—block the competition

From the Hoover Institution:

Considerable attention has been paid to the most blatant barriers that public charter schools face. By lobbying against good charter legislation and fair funding, financing anti-charter studies and propaganda, filing lawsuits, and engaging the public battle of ideas, teacher unions and other charter opponents openly wage what might be called an “air war” against charters.

But there is also evidence of a perhaps more damaging “ground war.” ...Attempts to establish public charter schools in Maryland have been thwarted at almost every turn by entrenched school boards, teachers unions and principals resistant to any competition.”

Chortling over charters

From the Chicago Tribune:

Chicago's charter schools are an impressive lot. Charters often do a better job educating the most challenging students in the poorest neighborhoods and getting them into college than regular neighborhood schools do. Around the country, states and cities look to Chicago's rigorous system of authorizing and monitoring charters as a model to emulate.

That record begs the question: What's with our own state's hostility toward charters? Read More

For Charter Schools, New Orleans Is Citywide Lab

From npr.org:

In New Orleans, Hurricane Katrina destroyed thousands of homes and ruined countless communities. But the storm has also created new hope for the city's school system, long regarded as one of the worst in the nation. New Orleans has become the country's leading laboratory for charter-school experiments. Many educators and parents hope that a rejuvenated school system might help draw residents back into the city. Read More

Charter Schools Number Nearly 4,000 Nationwide

Press Release from CER:

"More and more parents choose to send their children to charter schools, looking for something that works," said CER President Jeanne Allen. "People are recognizing charter schools as new public schools of choice that are accountable for achieving results. It's time to acknowledge that charter schools are no longer an experiment, as the teachers unions like to suggest, but a widely accepted, successful pillar of the public education landscape." Read More

Charter Schools vs. Teacher Unions: Irresistible Force vs. Immovable Object?

From the Buckeye Institute:

Both major teacher unions, the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers view the charter school movement as a direct challenge, perhaps the greatest from any source. Thus they have opposed laws authorizing the establishment of charter schools, weakening charter school laws as much as possible and limiting the number of such schools that are authorized. Read More

Flawed Research by National Center for Education Statistics Should be Viewed with Great Skepticism

From the Center for Education Reform:

An education research study scheduled for release tomorrow relies on bad data about students attending charter schools, according to the Center for Education Reform (CER). Studies using raw data collected in 2004 by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) include seriously flawed poverty indicators among charter school students, a problem NCES acknowledges. Read More

CPS rejects charter school

From ABC7Chicago.com:

Just weeks before the start of the new school year, some parents in Chicago are scrambling to find a new school for their children. Wednesday, the Chicago Board of Education rejected a charter school that was expected to open next month in a building in the city's Englewood community...

GAP principal Desi Smith says CPS made a promise and broke their promise to the families of the South Side of Chicago. She is disappointed that politics overruled providing a school for the young people. Smith added that CPS used the S.T Benedict building last year as a public school and did not have a problem with it. Read More

Can Political Leaders Find the Courage to Liberate Education?

From the Heartland Institute:

Educational innovations leading to performance improvements were the goal of introducing school choice in the first place. It is possible that if Moreno Valley High School (MVHS)--a charter school in Angel Fire, New Mexico--had replicated its program across the state, SAT scores and AP enrollment statewide might have increased as additional Socratic Practice charter schools opened, staffed by faculty trained at the proposed MVHS Socratic Practice teacher training center. Read More