The Louisville Courier Press has an article reporting that, 5 years after creation of the program, publicly funded charter schools in Indiana are mixed in their performance. “Charter schools receive public funding but operate outside the rules of traditional public schools, and they are independent of local school boards.”
The surprise to me is not that some Charter schools are doing well, some are average, and some are poor. To me, the surprise is that there doesn’t seem to have been much of a plan to measure their performance. They were sold as being superior to regular schools. I would’ve thought some way of telling whether we’re getting what we’re paying for would have been put in place.
I certainly think charter schools have their place. Some kids just aren’t wired to be good little cogs in the public school machinery. With greater flexibility, charters have the potential to help these kids.
[tags]education[/tags]
Doug wrote:
To me, the surprise is that there doesn’t seem to have been much of a plan to measure their performance.
As a retired public school teacher,having taught 35 years,my longtime suspicion has always been that the main objective of many educational programs coming especially from conservatives( Charter schools for one) is to get the control away from the teacher’s union,and local school boards and turn over control to local church-based groups,if possible, who will ‘do what’s best’and teach ‘values’ In other words, we don’t need a plan and we don’t need accountability.. that’s all just ‘socialism’. We cut taxes,give vouchers for private schools, form Charter schools and everything is solved..we’ve gotten rid of ‘socialism’. But I’m probably over simplifying,but honestly thats the consistent message I have interpreted .
The other problem for public schools are the cultural advocacy groups, mainly Hispanics and Blacks who want to teach their culture on public school time.In all these ways local control has undermined traditional curriculum..
Hope its ok to bleed over from our upcoming Inkwell.vue conversation Doug, but I’ve seen some evidence to suggest that the primary motive for many parents seeking to get their kid(s) into charter schools is fear of crime (and drugs) in schools without barriers to entry. That doesn’t doom charter schools to educational failure of course, but it may explain why the market incentives that conservatives expect to make choice based school systems work better educationally, aren’t working. Consumers aren’t selecting for educational success. (As you know I think this fear of crime is warped and decidedly unhelpful but its important to be realistic about its impact).