Why Charter Schools Make Americans So Angry

We need to acknowledge that not all kids are best served in the same educational environment. Trying to standardize everything is cheaper, but it will invariably exclude some students who simply can't learn in that environment. No school environment can serve ALL students.

Like public schools, not all charter schools are created equal. Before deciding to send your child to either, it is best to visit the principal and teacher(s) your child will have, to see the classroom(s), and to look at the publicly available performance data. This costs nothing but time, and helps us make informed decisions as parents.

I love that my local school district spends $25k per child and still manages to have declining test scores ❤️

I LOVED my child's Charter school, it allowed her to excel at her own pace. I taught her to read before she entered kindergarten, she was already reading chapter books by then. The public school didn't know what to do with her because she was so advanced. I switched her to the local Charter school which was Montessori-based and they immediately created a special curriculum just for my child which allowed her to continue to excel (even received recognition from then President W Bush for excellence) and she went on to graduate high school a whole year early!

Summary, you can't throw all charter schools into the same bucket. Some are really trying to make a difference for the kids, others are applying cut-throat business techniques to systematically pocket public money.

I chose a charter school for my daughter many years ago. She is dyslexic and the public school refused to do any testing or accommodating until she was failing. She was able to maintain her grades by working harder yet her reading level was several grades below. The charter school jumped right in and started working with her and raised her reading level 3 grade levels in one semester to get her on level! They worked with individual students to teach them however that child learned. I will forever be grateful. My daughter is now a senior in college and graduated high school on the Honor Society and was able to earn academic scholarships with her ACT scores. This would never have happened without Cumberland Academy in Tyler, TX!

If public schools want to compete with charter schools, it's time to open more magnet programs, lower ratios and hold students and parents accountable for misbehavior. And bring back gym class everyday and recess! No amount of test cramming is going to get kids to pass standardized tests if they are restless. This won't happen though. The system will have to fail completely before the attention and resources are given to fix it.

Charter schools can pick and choose their students. Charter schools can also kick students out unlike public schools that have to take everyone.

The fact that there is a waiting list at every Charter School in my area (Southern California), is a sign that parents are looking for other options. Perhaps if the Public School systems were offering what was wanted on a more consistent basis throughout school districts, parents wouldn't be trying to get their children out of public schools. (Side note, a friend of mine moved from Canada. She said moving to an area to get your kid into a 'good' public school wasn't a thing there. Perhaps we need to take note of other countries public school set up.)

See, nobody addressed the lottery system though. They also did not mention what happens when students misbehave in a charter school like Kipp, or if they accommodate special needs students. It's a lot easier to succeed when you don't have to accept every child. Even if they do a random lottery, the act of asking parents to complete the application is enough of a barrier to make the difference. As a public school teacher, I see kids who are parent less, homeless, special needs, and some who are just plain assholes, and I teach every one of them. When a charter school can say they meet this standard THEN they can claim to be public schools, until then they are basically taxpayer funded private schools.

Unfortunately the other reason parents move kids out of public school is the poor environment that exist in these schools, especially throughout philadelphia. Even if the education statistically is worse, giving your kid a chance to potentially be around better kids and not some of these prison pipeline schools is worth it.

I taught special education in a district public school. We frequently had to take students from the local Charter School because they had a policy of "full inclusion"- they did not provide special education services outside the child's general education classroom. The irony of a full-inclusion policy is that parents of students who are significantly impacted by their disability are often told their child's needs are better met in the district. That is an example of exclusion, not inclusion, and skews the demographics of each population.

I noticed that there is no one turning the mirror to themselves to ask "Why are families leaving my district to seek another option. How did we fail this student". There seems to be a neglect of how charters are audited MORE than than most traditional public schools or the higher level of transparency they must provide. Seems that those interviewed need to learn more before opposing them. I giggled when the gentleman mentioned corruption....really? Charter schools are shut down a lot faster than other public schools if they fail to meet their charter while other schools have improvement plans extended repeatedly. There's more to this story than what is portrayed.

In all honesty, education reform should be centered on having county wide school districts with a teacher planned curriculum. Our pubic school system is incredibly inefficient and unequal. School choice or not isn't the problem, us not having the expectation that two schools in the same county will have the same curriculum, expectations or support services is a problem and we can easily fix that with county schools districts. Are charter schools necessary? Maybe. Even as a teacher I'm not against charter schools. But what we call "better" are generally just rich schools out performing poor schools. There really doesn't need to be huge variations in quality in the same county any more. We just let it happen.

Maybe public school should look at what they're doing wrong and why parents are choosing other options for their kids.

I am a PROUD KIPP parent of three kids. Two of which transitioned from Philadelphia Public Schools. I will be FOREVER grateful of KIPP and so glad I made the conscious decision to switch to Charter. Public school was NOT for my children. I had the most issues and felt my children were not getting the education they DESERVED. My two oldest children THRIVED at KIPP. My youngest currently attends and she truly enjoys it. She is excited about learning because KIPP gets her excited about learning. The teachers are passionate and they take our children's education serious. Again...forever grateful!

My oldest wouldn't have made it through school at all if it wasn't for charter school. Regular public school system is so broken.

I used to work for a charter school. It was a mess. Some people loved it, but it wasn’t for everyone

I went to a charter school and it was the worst decision of my childhood. The school is now closed.

It's funny how these district Superintendents and Administrators say they would have to cut teachers and programs from the schools, basically all of people resources that directly affect students, but never want to cut from their own costs or go back into the classroom. I've worked for public schools for 20 years and they waste so much of the peoples' money. It is amazing how just a small percentage of tax dollars actually makes it into the classrooms (after facilities and overhead costs and other materials: libraries, etc.).