Are charter schools the best alternative in public education? Apparently it is according to the North Carolina Senate. There has been a lot of debate about the effectiveness of charter schools and their educational value to students. Statistics have proven that they have been very successful in the state of North Carolina. However, so have many public schools in the state. There has been a long standing cap of 100 schools charter schools and lobbyist have successfully convinced the lawmakers that this cap needs to be removed. See the link below : http://www.wral.com/news/state/nccapitol/story/9166891/
The Wake County Public Schools have received national attention about their issues with student reassignment and equality education for all students’ regardless race or socioeconomic status. I believe this was the most opportune time for the charter schools to lobby and influence politicians to vote and remove the cap to offer parents an alternate in their educational choices. The charter schools also win because due to frustrations of the parents the parents are more ambitious to “try something different”. Check out the video on:
http://abcnews.go.com/WN/battle-nc-b...ry?id=11243854
The North Carolina Association of Educators also lobbied to stop the cap removal on charter schools. They realized with all of the recent cuts in educational funding and loss of teacher jobs this would serve as another “nail in the coffin” to change education as we know it forever. It is definite that the charter schools won this battle but the war is far from over.
The people making the decisions are NOT educators and therefore look at the issues from a business perspective. Education is a unique business of its own and can not be “fixed” with cookie cutter solution or be compared with any other corporation. I make this statement as a former business women and now educator. The consensus is that OUR children lose in the end.
My children attend a charter school. I've been pleased with the smaller classroom size and the unique approaches to learning.
ReplyDeleteI have taught in the public, private and charter school settings. I really enjoyed my time at the charter school and believe that they have their place in the education arena. Public schools should see them as a push for them to improve so parents won't feel the need to send their children to charter schools if they are concerned about losing students and dollars. Charter schools serve a population that truly does well in the smaller settings.
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