Charter Schools: A Case Study

Public education has had a negative effect on students; it’s often because of the bigger class sizes, poor test scores, and high crime in the surrounding areas. Public schools need to revise their system to determine what’s the best fit for their student’s educational needs. All children who live in a school district have a right to attend a district school. Many parents would like more options and opportunities for their child, and would like to be involved in their child’s education. Charter schools are part of the answer for a better educational choice for children’s academic achievement. Charter schools have many successful methods and continue to pave the way for children’s education needs .

Charter schools are unique public schools that is allowed the freedom to be more innovative while being held accountable for advancing student achievement. These charter schools are not private schools, they do not charge for tuition and they are open to all children within specific boundaries. Research has demonstrated that charter schools make picks up in the urban community with students who have veritably been undeserved by traditional state funded schools. Charter schools outscored their traditional school peers in 25 of the 41 cities in math, and 23 of the 42 cities in reading. On average, charter schools had no significant impacts on student’s achievement. Charter schools help enhance student learning, empower the utilization of new and imaginative educating strategies, and give schools an approach to move from a lead based to an execution based arrangement of responsibility. Public schools are like charter schools except for the freedom that a charter school has. And private school is based on tuition and that is funded by charities and tax holders in that community.

There are a number of ways that charter schools give parents greater individual control over their childrens’ education. No longer is a child bound to attend a particular school based on the geographical location of his or her home. Parents have the freedom to select a charter school that they feel would best suit the needs of their children1. Parents also have a greater say in the affairs of charter schools compared to public schools. In many instances, parents serve on the “board of education” governing the charter school, a board whose context is determined by a school’s charter and not state law. This contrasts with the traditional public school board that is limited to seven members elected from the community-at-large, regardless of whether board members have children in school. Moreover, a charter school board is entirely occupied with the operations of just one school instead of an entire district. Charter school supporters argue that this leads to less bureaucracy and greater efficiency in creating school policy that ultimately benefits students.

Since the 1980s, charter schools have allowed families to exercise school choice, a practice that had begun a few decades earlier when parents preferred to control their children’s education because of religious views or racial prejudices. As dissatisfaction with the performance public schools grew during the late 20th century, parents called on government to subsidize an arrangement where children could receive adequate education outside of the traditional public school system. Thus, two major school choice devices emerged: charter schools, privately run schools that receive public funding, and tuition vouchers, which cover some or all of tuition at participating private schools.

Charter schools are all the buzz in the media lately; they are what seems to be the sensible response to the path traditional public schools are heading, down the drain. However, charter schools still face many obstacles and issues, stemming from the fact that they are far less regulated than their public school counterparts. This enacts issues including lack of quality control, increased segregation, and severe misuse of funds. Likewise, charter schools are only going to become increasingly more competitive and higher quality if their closest competitors follow that path, meaning the most successful charters are the ones compared directly to private schools. Since charters are also attempting to make a profit, they will go to all extents, including discrimination to bring up the scores, and therefore gain more leverage in negotiating for more funds. Simply enough, the most logical and simple way to prevent charter schools from degrading in quality or becoming out of control is to put more regulation on them, while still allowing them to maintain many characteristics of an independent charter.

Charter schools are a type of public school that is open enrollment. It has been growing immensely as the years go on. 42 out of the 50 states have voted that charter schools are a part of their state’s education system. There are over five thousand charter schools in the United State with over two million students enrolled. The schools are run by teachers and certified teachers. They are considered to be an alternative public school that creates a high-quality public school choices that cater to the child’s specific needs. Charter schools do not believe in the idea that education is “one size fits all” and the choices that they give offer more opportunities to the children for success. Charter schools are very similar to traditional public schools. They are technically open to all who apply. They cannot discriminate in their admissions and must enroll all students that submit their applications on time. Also, they are tuition free and administer standardized tests throughout

Charter schools offer much more than public schools do, like smaller classrooms and extended one-on-one time. Charter schools are “independent entities that have received a charter, which is a set of self-written rules (and promises) about how the school will be structured and run” (Pascual, 2016, The Truth About Charter Schools). This means that they have their own rules that work for the children and meet their individual needs. The schools could change the rules, as generations change, to accommodate different students. With the unity and numbers of millennials, charter schools could be known as the best type of schools for students to succeed in future colleges and jobs. In my essay I will back up Cahn and Cahns’ prediction that millennials have what it takes to make it well known that charter schools are the best schools.

To understand the state of charter schools today, it is important to know how a charter school was envisioned to be. Tell explains that charter schools, by nature, should be more accurately described as “contract” schools. These schools are contractually obligated to serve the interest of the general public by providing education opportunities using the funds provided from taxes. Traditionally, charter schools are defined as “tuition-free, publicly funded, performance-based, non-sectarian, public schools of choice open to all.”[1] These schools are considered autonomous because they are exempt from most, if not all, local and state rules and regulations regarding education. The reduction of applicable laws pertaining to these schools are supposed to liberate them from the supposedly strict regulations that bog down the education system that prevent teachers from what they were actually hired to do: to teach. Although novel in concept, this idea has been difficult to implement in reality.

A deterrent for the wanting to start a charter school is the high barrier of entry for a new firm. Charter schools have high start-up costs with little federal and state funding to help. With charter schools boasting a total of $2 billion in accounting profit per year, charter schools appear to be doing well for themselves ("Charter Schools in the US", 'Industry at a Glance'). However, charter schools are run as non-profit organizations, and the profits are recycled back into the school. One of the strongest arguments for charter schools is the idea that it gives children in urban areas a chance at a higher level of education offered than that of a traditional school within that district. Statistics show that twenty-nine percent of charter school students are African-American while only fifteen percent of traditional school students are African-American. Latino students also make up three percent more of the student body of charter schools relative to traditional schools. Over half of the charter schools in the U.S. are in urban areas while roughly only one-third of the traditional schools lie within the urban areas ("Charter Schools in the US", Industry Performance tab, 'Exceptional Growth' paragraph).

Despite the charter school model created by education reformers, the verdict is still out on their effectiveness. Recent studies demonstrate that overall performance has failed to accomplish their intended results. Individual states determine the laws each charter organization shall follow, which might account for the differences in performance across states. Although slight differences exist in the way charter schools operate among states, their effectiveness in improving student academic performance has proven to be less than what education reformers lauded as the answer to the ills of the American educational system.

To quote Jonathan Stith, “Where you see the charters providing an avenue of escape for some, it hasn’t been for the majority,” (Zernike 4). In some cities charter schools are educating more that half the students in some American cities (Zernike 1). These charter schools make promises to parents and students that are hard to pass up in many cities, where public education is lacking and private education is out of reach for many. Charter schools exist all across America, in forty-two states and Washington D.C.(Oliver). These charter schools promise choice, opportunities for better and safer education, as well as strive to to close the achievement gap occurring in schools across America. (Oliver). The question is: are charter schools living up to this promise? I believe that many charter schools are failing to follow through on these promises and, that changes should be made in order to provide a more genuine source of educational opportunity to students across America.

Charter schools are supposed to contribute to school innovation and reform by their combination of freedom and accountability (Innovations in Education: Successful Charter Schools 2004, 1). Those that support charter schools hope that due to their independence they will be able to spark innovative reforms, promote competition within the public school sector and provide new options to families (Finn, Manno, & Vanourek, 2000; Nathan 1998a; 1998b). Then those on the opposite end of the spectrum, argue that charter schools and greater choice within the public sector may cause further racial segregation and cause economical strains for not only states but school districts; all while not being proved to be more effective (Wells et al., 1998; Fiske & Ladd,

Education is a very important part of a person’s life. Every parent want the best thing for their children. They want their children to be happy and to be able to achieve their dreams and be what they want to be, which is why they want the best education for their children. Because, almost everyone would agree that being well – educated is the closest way to success life and good future. But, their desire to send their kids to the best school have to face many obstacles. One of these obstacles would be choosing school for their kids. In the U.S., there are three types of school: public school, charter school and private school. Private schools are usually very selective, has better performance than government-funded school and has expensive tuition fee. Rich families would send their kids to private schools because they could afford the expense. However, for a normal family, paying the expense for private schools would be overwhelming. So, there options are narrowed between charter schools and public schools. There have been many debates on whether charter schools or public schools provide students with better education. But, there are obvious evidences that charter schools are generally better than public schools:

Many charter schools are known for their rigorous programs that challenge students to fulfill specific requirements that are different from traditional schools. Charter schools also value the idea of cultivating students with a talent for arts, technology or music (Chen). Institutions such as charter schools may be viewed as open or loosely constructed based on the unique guidelines displayed in each school’s charter, but in reality this is untrue because the individuality of each charter is what allows each student to excel based on the personalization and attention given to every single student who attends. A charter school has the potential to reach out into the community and help children who are not able to fit in at a traditional public school and it may allow the student to learn from a new perspective. Any child is allowed to apply to a charter school and they are admitted on a first-come, first served basis or through a lottery. The decision is not made on race or sex of the child and there is a fair chance for every student. A charter school is a great alternative to private school because there is no tuition fee at a charter school which is run by the state. Operators of the charter schools are able to provide children with a school that will create new and improved services which are lacking in the public school districts (“Charter School FAQ”). A charter school can also help

“Educational privatization is controversial and politically contentious.” So said Henry Levin (2008) as he wrote regarding issues in educational privatization. Four of the principles Levin uses to evaluate school choice policies are summarized in this essay, as are the advantages and disadvantages of charter schools with regard to these principles and a policy suggestion developed in consideration of the growth in income equality in the U.S. that would help balance Levin’s four principles.