Total bull crap, and none of them last long.

Most often after the heads of the school have ran off with lots of money that was supposed to got for students.

And the religious charter schools are a sick joke.
Many use the Bob Jones and A Beka schoolbooks, that are really heavy on Biblical mythology touted as fact, and they attack actual science and history.

Who touts this, besides FOX News and those who stand to profit from privatized education?

....how charter schools (and vouchers) are supposedly the cure for public school deficiencies.

And I'm just left scratching my head with what I've seen of them and thinking, "Really? Am I missing something here?"

Does the emperor indeed have no clothes here?

And somebody needs to look at that spot on the old gent's ass.....

in exchange for stricter oversight. They have to meet all state academic standards and the state does not hesitate to shut them down if they fail. It is also very hard to open a charter school - over half of the applications are denied.

The state hopes to learn new methods of teaching from successful charter schools - they are viewed as incubators for innovation. Given the sorry state of many RI public schools, innovation is desperately needed.

....I'd rather see that time, brainpower and money go directly into fixing our public schools than spending it instead on public school "substitutes" like charter schools and vouchers. It reeks of defeatism to me.

When it comes to public schools, I'm all for innovation, but not for privatization.

...they are still de facto private schools, run not by school boards but by private individuals who happen to be recieving public funding.

In other words, of law versus of fact. Those who have studied law know they are not always compatiable.

And yes, the government can grant a charter, and yes a charter school may receive public funding, but it does not change the fact that it is still a private entity that does not have the same level of public oversight that a true public school has.

they are all overseen by the same government agencies - charter schools are public schools by law receive the same oversight as none charter schools.

In any case, all your concerns can be addressed by properly written legislation.

And when every student in RI has to meet the same standards and pass the same test to get a diploma, I don't see the issue. We can objectively measure the standard of education every kid gets. And considering how traditional schools are failing so many kids in RI, charter schools certainly cannot make things any worse - public oversight does not automatically translate into good schools.

Sadly.

that have now become mainstream. I wonder if they are just diploma mills - rather no comprehensive education, just to the test memorization per semester. No retention of knowledge, nor do they even learn how to learn.

What I know is true of Michigan, and I don't know if charters are run the same way in other states, but...

Here's how it works. A charter school receives funding from the state, just like a regular public school. Here's the twist. While 'chartered' with universities, the schools themselves are often run by for-profit companies, with a good portion of that money going to the compensation of CEOs and other executives. Teachers are nonunion and paid less, and the management company's main objective is to generate a return on investment, not educate kids. It's diabolical, really.

In my experience, raising two girls in the past 20 years, the Charter Schools in the areas we lived in seemed to be operated by a clubby group of parents, who wanted a private school, but using public money.

The routinely underperform public schools. They have way more issues with warring parents, and parents who steamroll the staff. They are not needed. Instead the school money should be used for magnet schools, or immersion style schools, etc., while maintaining the integrity of a public school.

Seriously. the charter school parents were enough to make you never support them. Again, mostly rich parents who didn't want their kids to go to religious schools, or middle class parents who looked down on the regular public schools.

All my kids and stepkids went to public schools, in all kinds of neighborhoods, and turned out great.

myself. In Philadelphia, charter schools are touted as the solution to the godawful mess that is the Philadlephia public schools. However, when the paper prints test scores, the charters' results are just as horrendous, if not more so, than the public school results. And yeah, every now and then there's a scandal around a charter.

I'm not a big fan of all the testing, but 10% proficient in reading? In elementary school? To me that says there's a problem WAAAY beyond that schools. Ain't no charter going to fix that. Even a respectable charter, which do exist, despite the many fly-by-nights.

We sent our daughter to one (a public charter) and she thrived, where she was not being challenged at her regular public school a few blocks down the road. Charter still has a very good reputation, but it's becoming rather closed. Entry is by a lottery, but once you get in, you're in from K-8, and they've just broken ground on a high school. There will be a mad rush to get kids in the lottery for the high school, because that is about the only time that there are LOTS of slots available.

I had my kids 7 yrs apart, so age-wise, we didn't meet the requirements for sibling inclusion. If we had, my son would have definitely gone there. There are approximately 3000 kids that try for charter schools or choice schools (schools out of your regular district) each year in the whole state of Delaware. Almost 2000 of them are on the list for Newark Charter. My son was 162 on the waiting list one year, didn't make it even on the wait list another, and was 83 last year. I'm not applying for next year at all. Although I think he'd get a slightly better education there than where he is, and there is definitely less bullying and rowdiness (cause they'll kick your butt out), I think going to 3 different schools in 3 years would be too much upheaval.

When Newark Charter was created, a good number of the administrators and some of the teachers moved from our local Catholic school, some from our local public schools. We have another charter school here that's can't be spoken of as highly (administration problems, falsifying resumes, budget shortfalls). They are in danger of having their charter pulled.

She loves it. She taught at a public school for a while, but much prefers the charter school.

I see them as an attempt to dismantle public education.

Charter schools have the right to refuse students, but public schools do not. Ultimately, this could lead to a concentration of struggling students in public schools and a death spiral of funding to these increasingly under-performing public schools.

Me too.

Can't speak for the whole country.

I used to work with a woman whose son was in a charter, and frankly, I can't blame her because the local public school was just so violent. I wish there were a way to fix city public schools in Philadelphia rather than take the chance with some-good/some-corrupt charters.

they are held to the same academic standards as non-charter schools.

They are closely monitored by the state and over half of charter school applications are rejected as being inadequate.

Charter schools are popular and seem to be working.

Shoot me I must be a bad liberal!

Both schools are not-for-profit and were started by parents who felt that the regular public system was not working for them. My kids are quirky and intense and were not succeeding on the regular public system. We could not afford private and didn't want to homeschool. So this is what we came up with. It works very well for our family, with both kids happy and scoring in the very upper percentile on all standardized testing despite learning disabilities.

Back in my hometown several opened up and then closed because they were, essentially, scams.

I think the conservatives really wanted prayer in schools and mandatory free market brainwashing. They didn't get it, so the charter schools were a compromise.

I also think they are a way of destroying teachers' unions.

...I think the RW's singular goal is to destroy any unions in schools...period.

systems run that way, however.

are all licking their lips at the thought of getting a big old snout full of public money.

I do NOT like this thing at all. Maybe, MAYBE there is some sort of good that contracting
out some school something (I'm just not sure what) would result in BUT...thus far...it all just seems crooked.

And, I'm sick of the pols just giving our schools away. Here in Los Angeles, Villaraigosa has been giving away the public school system. I want
him OUT of office, for this and many other things (Our home does NOT support him and it made us gag to see him at the convention).

Just take a look at how states across America have been giving the prisons away to that private creepy company...I see
the same thing with schools. How long before there is a monstrous Wal-Mart business running ALL the of America's schools?

so many charter schools remind me of those hole-in-the-wall churches with about 20 congregants. Except the fly-by-night churches don't get any taxpayer money.

I wouldn't know where to start.

One of about ten.

No more and no less. The drive to proliferate them has nothing to do with education, it is a pure exercise in cupidity.