Charter
Candis Ridley
Professor: Paul Catterson
Composition 1280, 63
April 15, 2013
Charter Schools the New Reform
Charter schools have been emerging recently all over the United States of America. This is a major issue for the public school system. Parents, teachers, and students need to understand what the growth of charter schools means to the school system as a whole. In the end, it is the death of free education as we know it. The long-term effect that charter schools will have on public education defers from the original idea of progressiveness. Charter schools promised to be the necessary change to the drowning public school system through innovation, creative teaching, and low class size (Weingarten 41). These teachers ran facilities that were to reach out to at risk students, have become a means of privatizing education. “It has become impossible to separate the rapid expansion of charter networks from efforts to privatize public education” (Davis 6). There are over 59 charter schools opened in Chicago in the name of reform, there are plans to be more. Charter schools are publicly owned, but privately operated, facilities that take much needed resources from public schools. However, the rise of charter schools has done a poor job in satisfying the promise of restructuring and providing choice to parents. Charter schools have led to a host of problematic situations that hinder the growth of students. Charter schools hire inexperienced teachers, reject students with behavioral issues, and produce highly segregated environments. These schools assured parents that they would improve standardized test scores, yet, have shown very few gains.
Charter schools said it could do more with less, which was false. The charter school movement has fallen short of the results that many reformers and policymakers were predicting. The grants that charter schools receive in conjunction with corporations provide more money for resources than that of public
Professor: Paul Catterson
Composition 1280, 63
April 15, 2013
Charter Schools the New Reform
Charter schools have been emerging recently all over the United States of America. This is a major issue for the public school system. Parents, teachers, and students need to understand what the growth of charter schools means to the school system as a whole. In the end, it is the death of free education as we know it. The long-term effect that charter schools will have on public education defers from the original idea of progressiveness. Charter schools promised to be the necessary change to the drowning public school system through innovation, creative teaching, and low class size (Weingarten 41). These teachers ran facilities that were to reach out to at risk students, have become a means of privatizing education. “It has become impossible to separate the rapid expansion of charter networks from efforts to privatize public education” (Davis 6). There are over 59 charter schools opened in Chicago in the name of reform, there are plans to be more. Charter schools are publicly owned, but privately operated, facilities that take much needed resources from public schools. However, the rise of charter schools has done a poor job in satisfying the promise of restructuring and providing choice to parents. Charter schools have led to a host of problematic situations that hinder the growth of students. Charter schools hire inexperienced teachers, reject students with behavioral issues, and produce highly segregated environments. These schools assured parents that they would improve standardized test scores, yet, have shown very few gains.
Charter schools said it could do more with less, which was false. The charter school movement has fallen short of the results that many reformers and policymakers were predicting. The grants that charter schools receive in conjunction with corporations provide more money for resources than that of public
Cited: Davis, Julia. "Contracts, Control and Charter Schools: The Success of Charter Depends on Stronger Non-Profit Board Oversight to Preserve Independence adn Prevent Dominaton by For-Profit Manangement Companies." Brigham Young University Education and Law Journal (2011): 1-28. Education Research Complete. April 2013. Dykgraff, Christy Lancaster and Shirley Kane Lewis. "For-Profit Charter Schools: What the Public Needs to Know." Educational Leadership 56.2 (1998): 44-47. Education Research Complete. March 2013. Frankenberg, Erica and Genevieve Siegel Hawley. "Choice Without Equality: Charter School Segregation and the Need for Civil Rights Standards." Education Digest 76.5 (2011): 44-47. Education Research Complete. April 2013. Maranto, Robert. "The Perfect is the Enemy of the Good: A critique of John Merrifields Critique of Public Charter Schools." Journal of School Choice 12 (2006): 131-141. Education Research Complete. March 2013. Mead, J."Charter School Laws: State by State Ranking and Profiles. Center for Education Reform Analysis (2001):1-4. Education Research Complete.April2013 Merrifield, John. "Charter Laws: Disaster, Detour, Irrelevant, or Reform Tool?" Journal of School Choice 1.1 (2006): 3-22. Education Research Complete. April 2013. Weingarten, Randi. "Voicing Concerns, Crafting Solutions: Unions in the Age of Teacher Bashing." Education Review 24.1 (2011): 41-48. Education Research Complete. March 2013.