Reassurance was the mutual feeling among a packed room of charter school teachers, administrators, and advocates who attended last week’s New Jersey Charter School Association Conference in Atlantic City.
Governor Chris Christie addressing an anxious and uncertain community laid out a plan, that would both support and provide greater flexibility, in ensuring that charter schools continue their quest in further narrowing the achievement gap and providing the best opportunities for students in the State of New Jersey.
This type of reassurance further validates Governor Christie’s willingness to keep promises and ensure the best for our State when it comes to education. In January, during his annual State of the State Address, Governor Christie
Are charter schools the right choice to the educational needs of our children? Charter schools are tuition free public schools created and operated by parents, organizations, and community groups to fill student’s educational needs. Charter schools consider educating their students as the priority, and identify how children’s learning needs are different from each other, so they came up with different ways on educating their students such as learning in small groups, or by participating in hands on learning. Along with their unique programs such as art, math, and science, charter schools are also the stronger academic choice for students. Parents should consider charter schools for their children’s
Furthermore, focus is critical to the student’s ability to succeed and the charter’s ability to educate its students. With special attention, the school can demonstrate a comprehensive strategy stressing a field of study, such as technical or artistic disciplines. In this way, getting students ready for the real world, gears them up for college, sets them up for continued success. "The charter schools' superiority was greater in states where they had been in existence longer and enrolled more students." ("The Charter Advantage," 2005) A school’s assertive actions can weed out teachers who are not performing adequately. Teachers must be able to teach in a way (not necessarily mainstream) that instructs, inspires, and motivates students to excel. Charter schools have the ability to do that. Students may not have the same abilities or interests, but the teacher must allow the student’s
Charter schools are unique public schools that is allowed the freedom to be more innovative while being held accountable for advancing student achievement. These charter schools are not private schools, they do not charge for tuition and they are open to all children within specific boundaries. Research has demonstrated that charter schools make picks up in the urban community with students who have veritably been undeserved by traditional state funded schools. Charter schools outscored their traditional school peers in 25 of the 41 cities in math, and 23 of the 42 cities in reading. On average, charter schools had no significant impacts on student’s achievement. Charter schools help enhance student learning, empower the utilization of new and imaginative educating strategies, and give schools an approach to move from a lead based to an execution based arrangement of responsibility. Public schools are like charter schools except for the freedom that a charter school has. And private school is based on tuition and that is funded by charities and tax holders in that community.
The first day of school is a rite of passage for most children. The step from home or day care to school is huge: they are a big kid now. However, sometimes the local Public School, especially in rural or economically challenged areas, can be an uncertain, questionable and scary place, and yet parents are expected to entrust them with their five or six year old child. Some years ago, when my daughter was ready to enter school, she and I had just such an experience, and we began to seriously search for an alternative school for her to attend. What we discovered was a Charter School: a possible solution for parents, enabling them to take more control of their child’s education. For my daughter and
There are a number of ways that charter schools give parents greater individual control over their childrens’ education. No longer is a child bound to attend a particular school based on the geographical location of his or her home. Parents have the freedom to select a charter school that they feel would best suit the needs of their children1. Parents also have a greater say in the affairs of charter schools compared to public schools. In many instances, parents serve on the “board of education” governing the charter school, a board whose context is determined by a school’s charter and not state law. This contrasts with the traditional public school board that is limited to seven members elected from the community-at-large, regardless of whether board members have children in school. Moreover, a charter school board is entirely occupied with the operations of just one school instead of an entire district. Charter school supporters argue that this leads to less bureaucracy and greater efficiency in creating school policy that ultimately benefits students.
At the foundation of the American public school system is the belief that every child deserves a quality education. To this end, the public school system in America has undergone many reforms. One of which has been charter schools. Charter schools are independent public schools of choice working under the auspices of a charter and not governed by the board of education. The charter can be written by parents, teachers, school administrators, community leaders, educational businesses, etc. It determines the school’s guiding principles, management and accountability systems. The state approves the charter and provides funding for the school. Families choose these schools for their children. (“Resistance Hinders Success,” 2004)
Charter schools are all the buzz in the media lately; they are what seems to be the sensible response to the path traditional public schools are heading, down the drain. However, charter schools still face many obstacles and issues, stemming from the fact that they are far less regulated than their public school counterparts. This enacts issues including lack of quality control, increased segregation, and severe misuse of funds. Likewise, charter schools are only going to become increasingly more competitive and higher quality if their closest competitors follow that path, meaning the most successful charters are the ones compared directly to private schools. Since charters are also attempting to make a profit, they will go to all extents, including discrimination to bring up the scores, and therefore gain more leverage in negotiating for more funds. Simply enough, the most logical and simple way to prevent charter schools from degrading in quality or becoming out of control is to put more regulation on them, while still allowing them to maintain many characteristics of an independent charter.
I hope this message finds you in good spirit. Dean Dalebout suggested I reach out to you regarding my interest in exploring avenues to serve the people of Michigan.
Another article “Massachusetts Charter Showdown,” emphasizes the ideas of adding more charters to the state. These charters will help those in rotten school districts get a better education and also serve those will special needs better. The author believes this idea on charters has merits and will cause the democrats to confess to their income inequality
This demonstrates Murphy’s initiative in fixing the economy through various beneficial solutions. Doing so he will be helping the people of New Jersey by lowering property taxes which individuals can finally be relieved to hear. Murphy also wants to be more strict with spending on transit to ensure that the roads and bridges are functional rather than crowded with tolls. Personally, I think this is very efficient because these two factors make New Jersey very expensive to live in lowering and being more strict will slowly bring back a better economy. Murphy wants to grow the economy so that it makes it fairer for the New Jersey residents due to the state being ranked last or near last in growth and inequalities. He states, “We need an economy that works for all New Jerseyans not just the special interests, I flat out reject the ‘us versus them’ approach to our economy, it is time we get back to thinking about ‘we’” (Phil Murphy). Murphy wants to achieve this by raising the wage to $15 an hour, ensure equal pay for equal work, and make millionaires and corporations pay their fair share of taxes. If this is successfull than the economic standing that New Jersey holds will soon rise from the bottom to the top. At the
Some of the concerns that ultimately issued Proposition 51 to be put into the ballot extends to a variety of issues between the state and more local levels. The first issue that came to many legislator’s attention was how local agency spending on schools were affecting the needs of students based on money that was being spent prior to 2016. Andrew Ujifusa’s article “California Rolls Toward Implementation on Overhauled K-12 Funding Formula” points out
A capable governor transforming the devastated aftermath of the hard-hit post-disaster New Jersey back to former vibrancy, now a promising nominee for 2016 American Presidential Election with earsplitting comments on governmental failure, Chris Christie, in my opinion, deserves to be in the limelight in 2013 and the beginning of 2014. In spite of reading just a few articles about the man of the year, I managed to form a relatively suitable view of Christie’s way of thinking, thought
In the 1980s there was much debate on school reform in the United States. The charter school model was an idea for educational reconstruction. These charter schools insured the continuing improvement of schooling (Budde, 1989). In 1991, Minnesota was the first state to pass legislation to create a charter school. In 1992, Minnesota opened the doors of the first charter school in the United States (“Resources,” 2012). Since then, Charter schools have gained wide spread acceptance across the United States.
For example, some teachers use an interactive chant that incorporates positive affirmation with physical movement and unique sounds. A teacher after watching the movie the “300” about an army of Spartans who overcame overwhelming odds, came into class one morning and told his inner city high school class that they are modern day Spartans and showed a clip from the movie. He told the students that they too have to overcome odds daily to survive and one way of surviving is through education. So each morning he had them engage in a warrior chant:
A benefit of placing charter schools in a school district is school choice. Parents appear to support the option of deciding where their children attend school. According to Andy Smarick, “In New York, 12,000 students are on charter wait lists; in Massachusetts 19, 000; in Pennsylvania 27,000” (2008). Additionally, an Annual Survey of America’s Charter Schools 2010 notes that an average of 239 children is on a waiting list to enter each charter school in America, which is a 21% surge since last year (Center for Education Reform, 2010). These studies indicate the importance of school choice to parents and their desire to enroll their children in charter schools. Another example that shows parental demand for charter schools comes from The Evaluation of Charter School Impacts a study published in June 2009 by the United States Department of Education. The study showed parents of charter school students were more satisfied with their children’s academic achievement and social development compared to parents of students in traditional school setting.