Writer: Charter Schools Hurt Public Ed

13 comments on this post so far. Add yours!

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  Bent on February 17 at 9:49 a.m.

  The Cd’A Charter Academy is top notch. All of my children have attended or are attending the Charter academy and I have nothing but good things to say about that school.

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  Joker on February 17 at 10:14 a.m.

  Let’s see, public schools are ranked near the worst in the nation and Coeur d’Alene Charter Academy is one of best.

  It makes perfect sense to shut down the one that’s working. Maybe we should be studying why the charter schools and figure out what’s working. Then apply it.

  I think this woman is dead wrong.

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  AutismMom on February 17 at 10:53 a.m.

  Charter schools fill a niche for students that don’t/can’t fit within the very narrow model of what public education has become.

  Charter schools bring refreshing ideas to education and are given the latitude to “do things differently” in the best interest of the students (not in the best interest of an overgrown organization).

  For my child, charter school is actually more inclusive rather than exclusive (special ed student).

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  MikeK on February 17 at 11:03 a.m.

  Charter Schools don’t hurt public education in my view. Vouchers that would take money out of the public schools to private or religious schools could likely hurt public schools, but not charter schools. I’m also not keen on shoveling tax dollars to out of state for-profit “education” companies that aren’t locally controlled or concerned.

  Innovation and competition within the public education system is in my mind important, relevant, and needed. The key there is ‘within’ the public education system so a fundamental building block of our country - a community and taxpayer provided education to every child in the country - isn’t destroyed. I think there are a lot of ways to do that - and the more experimentation, creativity, and energy that goes into that the better.

  Disclosure - I have one kid in a charter school here in town, three kids in public elementary school here, and we’ve also had experience with three of our kids in a private religious school. No one option is perfect for all kids, but my wife and I have experienced enough to have some interesting perspective I think.

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  BigMac on February 17 at 11:20 a.m.

  It’s not black and white. CDA Charter is very good at what it does—6-12 college prep—but its model would not work for education as a whole.

  Charter has a HUGE attrition rate. They accept 100 9th graders and graduate between 25-45 12 graders. Many of those graduates transfer into the school in their junior or senior year. The drop out rate at Charter, then, is something around 75%. We wouldn’t accept that at CHS or LCHS.

  But many of the reforms Charter is pushing would work very well for traditional public schools. Charter has cheap facilities. There’s no good reason to have huge, ornate schools like LCHS when Charter gets by on 1/4 the facilities budget per student. Charter hires good teachers and backs them 100%. Teachers who don’t meet expectations find themselves out of a job.

  Charter insists that students take primary responsibility for their own education. That’s actually the reason most students wash out. They and their parents are used to thinking that the school is responsible for educating them. Charter thinks that they should provide the opportunity for an education, but the actual learning must be done by the student.

  If only that idea could gain currency in traditional public schools, American education would be first rate.

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  moscow_minidoka on February 17 at 12:10 p.m.

  Charter schools fill a valuable need. Some children thrive under the mainstream model, but many (high achievers, special needs, etc) are simply not being served, for complicated reasons.

  Would Sherri Thomas prefer that parents of children who waste away in the public school system pull those children out of public schools altogether? I think Charter schools are a good compromise.

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  florined on February 17 at 2:57 p.m.

  Why is there even any question about different needs being met in different ways? The big problem arises when one child’s needs are ignored in order to meet those of another…an unacceptable outcome of any system.

  Of course, another problem stems from varying definitions of just what is needed. Clearly Bob Nonini sees no need to expose children to anything beyond the 4 walls of a classroom, much less use any revelations stemming from a field trip to explore further.

  Let the public dollar be applied to meeting individual student needs, to inspiring creativity among teachers, and encouraging diverse methods to meet diverse needs.

  I speak with some historic authority when I say that one way doesn’t get the job done.

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