The Importance Of Charter Schools

Public education has had a negative effect on students; it’s often because of the bigger class sizes, poor test scores, and high crime in the surrounding areas. Public schools need to revise their system to determine what’s the best fit for their student’s educational needs. All children who live in a school district have a right to attend a district school. Many parents would like more options and opportunities for their child, and would like to be involved in their child’s education. Charter schools are part of the answer for a better educational choice for children’s academic achievement. Charter schools have many successful methods and continue to pave the way for children’s education needs .

Open to all children, free of tuition, and does not have special entrance requirements, charter schools believe that children should have the opportunity to achieve at a high level. When creating charter schools, they focused on a desire to create greater flexibility for innovation within public education. It was hoped that successful innovations could be adapted to benefit public education more broadly. (NEA, 2017). Charter schools also, foster partnership between parents, teachers, and students in hopes of creating an environment in which parents can be more involved, teachers are allowed to innovate, and students are provided with structure they need to learn.

Charter schools are an alternative to public schools. Whether this alternative is a better solution to the public schools is the argument. Public schools can be just as creative as charter schools. Public schools are funded by our tax dollars, which ultimately the United States Government decides where those funds go. Education should be the last thing to be cut in the budget, but unfortunately, we the people do not have a choice other than the public offices whom we hope will do what they have said in their election speeches. Charter schools have come about to fill the gap that public schools cannot fill. They can gear their curriculum to student needs, where some public schools cannot because of funding cuts.

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.

Charter schools are aimed at giving parents and educators greater freedom to design an educational program aimed at increasing student achievement, accounting for greater freedom of contract between not only parent and school but also school and state.

According to Atila Abdulkadiroglu, many have adopted a “No Excuses” policy which is generally characterized by smaller sized classrooms, frequent testing, longer school days and more school days in the year, selective teacher hiring, strong student work ethic, and include an increased emphasis on discipline (Abdulkadiroglu 699-700). Charter Schools also expect a certain amount of parent participation: either in-classroom assistance, being an active component in the Parent-Teacher Organization, volunteering assistance with fund-raising activities, or wherever else the school may have need. Therefore, sending a child to a Charter School usually requires a significant investment of time and effort from the parents as well: for example, the school may not be able to provide transportation, hot lunches (meaning lunch must be packed every day), and whatever the school may expect in parent participation. Entrance into many of these acclaimed Charter Schools is not always that easy. There are frequently many, many students applying for just a few spots available. These schools typically employ a lottery system which gives each student an equal chance; however, there are just not enough spots available for all the students who wish to attend—someone always loses. In comparison, Public Schools are restricted by a massive hierarchy of educational bureaucracy: they must answer to

Why choose to go to Charter School rather than public school? Charter schools are public school of choice, meaning families choose for their children. Federal legislation provides grants to help charters to manage start-up costs. They create better educational opportunities for the students therefore they have higher expectations in teaching. Charter Schools and zoned (public) schools are tuition free but unfortunately not everyone can get in to Charter school, since it works by lottery. Everyone has the opportunity to apply and has a choice to attend Charlet School if the students are lucky enough to get in. Charter schools are more effective for three reasons: they have higher graduation rates, teachers are more prepared and devoted to their students, and teachers take a greater responsibility for their students as they compete against Zoned Schools.

Charter schools differ from traditional public schools on three basic principles: accountability, choice and autonomy. Charter schools are held accountable for their ability to educate students, management of finances and handle operations. If they do not meet the guidelines established by the charter they are closed. They give families a choice as to what school their children will attend. Finally, charter schools have more autonomy than traditional public schools. They are able to make their own decisions regarding curriculum and school governance and can focus on academic achievement instead of bureaucracy. (“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.

A deterrent for the wanting to start a charter school is the high barrier of entry for a new firm. Charter schools have high start-up costs with little federal and state funding to help. With charter schools boasting a total of $2 billion in accounting profit per year, charter schools appear to be doing well for themselves ("Charter Schools in the US", 'Industry at a Glance'). However, charter schools are run as non-profit organizations, and the profits are recycled back into the school. One of the strongest arguments for charter schools is the idea that it gives children in urban areas a chance at a higher level of education offered than that of a traditional school within that district. Statistics show that twenty-nine percent of charter school students are African-American while only fifteen percent of traditional school students are African-American. Latino students also make up three percent more of the student body of charter schools relative to traditional schools. Over half of the charter schools in the U.S. are in urban areas while roughly only one-third of the traditional schools lie within the urban areas ("Charter Schools in the US", Industry Performance tab, 'Exceptional Growth' paragraph).

Charter schools are basically tax-payer funded, independent public schools that are free from several of the regulations and laws that traditional public schools are governed by. They are instead; constrained by a contract that specifies the mission of the school, its academic goals and procedures for accountability. The initial charter school was opened in 1992 as an answer to the restriction of educational choice and the need to restructure the public education system. Most charter schools are run by for-profit organizations and compose the principle elements for the privatization shift in education and their goals are increased academic achievement. Since charter schools are less restricted by the normal regulations of traditional public

Students in charter schools has their education results improved significantly compares to the others who are going to public schools. Charter schools, like public schools, receive public funding. These school are

Many charter schools are known for their rigorous programs that challenge students to fulfill specific requirements that are different from traditional schools. Charter schools also value the idea of cultivating students with a talent for arts, technology or music (Chen). Institutions such as charter schools may be viewed as open or loosely constructed based on the unique guidelines displayed in each school’s charter, but in reality this is untrue because the individuality of each charter is what allows each student to excel based on the personalization and attention given to every single student who attends. A charter school has the potential to reach out into the community and help children who are not able to fit in at a traditional public school and it may allow the student to learn from a new perspective. Any child is allowed to apply to a charter school and they are admitted on a first-come, first served basis or through a lottery. The decision is not made on race or sex of the child and there is a fair chance for every student. A charter school is a great alternative to private school because there is no tuition fee at a charter school which is run by the state. Operators of the charter schools are able to provide children with a school that will create new and improved services which are lacking in the public school districts (“Charter School FAQ”). A charter school can also help

Charter schools give struggling minorities access to better education. Because charter schools often have more applicants than spaces, they must resort to “weighted lottery.” This means that the kids who are struggling to get a good education get picked first. This gives an equal opportunity to all families. Picking from a lottery also increases racial diversity in the classes. An advantage of this is that students critical thinking and collaborative skills all improve when put in a more racially diverse setting. The students in charter schools also benefit from extra days of schooling. Usually, charter schools get three to ten additional weeks of school versus public schools who do not. All students including the minorities get extra days

For decades the American education system provided parents with three choices: public, homeschool or private school. If they chose public then their child(ren) would be assigned to a school past on where they lived. However , “in the early 1990s a handful of states created independent public charter schools, providing opportunities for teachers and others to develop innovative schooling options “ (Palmer, Louann 2007). Not only did the creation of charter schools provide opportunities for the teachers, but gave parents a fourth option in educating their child(ren). Some veiw charter schools as a welcome addition to the public school sector, others doubt the benefit of these schools. There