Charter Schools: No Silver Bullet for Education

Great post mooncat! (4.00 / 2)

I wish I had time to elaborate on the important points you made but I will asap.  I will say, that Alabama isn't going to have a successful public school/charter school program until they cease operating separateand un-equal school systems.  Thanks again for the time you spent researching a topic that is near and dear to my heart.

The work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives and the dreams shall never die.~Senator Edward M. Kennedy (D. MA)

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by: Redeye @ Tue Jun 30, 2009 at 09:46:23 AM CDT

You're welcome (4.00 / 1)

I'm just afraid the charter school bandwagon is something we'll jump onto as a means of avoiding hard realities.  One of which is our means of funding schools (and all of state government) is really screwed up.  Another of which is we have no overarching advocate for education in Alabama -- just several entities all competing for money and power at the expense of the others.

Charter schools sound sexy and sound like we're doing something, but they aren't a panacea and, done wrong, are more likely to decrease student performance than to increase it.  An expensive mistake and one Alabama can't afford.

Work harder and work smarter!

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by: mooncat @ Tue Jun 30, 2009 at 10:58:08 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

Of course, I am very concerned about Alabama's schools. (4.00 / 2)

I share Redeye's belief that much of the manipulating that goes on is specifically designed to keep George Wallace's dream of "segregation forever" alive. There are many Alabama school children who heve never shared a classroom with a person of another race or ethnicity, and that is just plain wrong!

More specifically, my experience with charter schools has been positive, for the most part.  My grandsons and one granddaughter were doing poorly in the public school system in Central Florida and the family decided to try the area charter school, which was run by the Hare Krishna community.  All four of the children involved saw an immediate and significant improvement in grades, but more importantly, an improvement in skill levels and behavior.  At the same time, several other charter schools in that part of the state were floundering, students failing to learn, behavior problems running wild..

Conclusion: mooncat is right.  Charter schools are one alternative and can be very successful, but are not a panacea for the education problems of this or any other state.

A small group of thoughtful people could change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.
Margaret Mead  

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by: piggieheart @ Tue Jun 30, 2009 at 12:17:45 PM CDT

And, by the way... (4.00 / 2)

are there other states in which a city can have its own school system to compete with the county's?  The example I am aware of is Brewton City Schools, for those who prefer to forego the Escambia County School System. WTH? Is that not an enormous waste of money when administrative and support staff have to be duplicated in two buildings a few blocks apart?

A small group of thoughtful people could change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.
Margaret Mead  

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by: piggieheart @ Tue Jun 30, 2009 at 12:20:58 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Even worse in Morgan and Madison counties, piggieheart (4.00 / 1)

Morgan has the Morgan County system, Decatur city system, and Hartselle city system.

Madison has the Madison County system, Madison city system, and Huntsville city system.

Schools in Madison County are bursting at the seams with portable buildings, overcrowding, etc.  Same story in Madison City. In contrast, many Huntsville city schools are at 70% or less capacity or being consolidated with other schools because of low enrollment.

But not in all parts of the city.  In the more prosperous areas of town, some schools are overcrowded.  Instead of doing the obvious - rezoning -  the school board is trying to build new schools instead of moving kids around to better utilize the facilities they have now.

I think of it in terms of my home office, which is crammed with bookcases and has books stacked on the floor, etc.  Imagine I wanted to more space for my books, and instead of moving some out to the bookcase in the living room that has open space, I decide instead to add an entire room on the house.

Yes, rezoning is politically painful, but the school board members ran for the offices.  Nobody forced them, and they should be willing to make hard decisions.

To put it in larger perspective: other school systems are building like crazy (or trying to), while entire buildings in town are empty.  Now, I know that trying to shuffle kids across the county for school isn't a good answer, but nobody will even seriously consider consolidation.  Too many little fiefdoms at risk, I guess.

 

I'm not short.  I'm fun size!!

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by: countrycat @ Wed Jul 01, 2009 at 08:19:52 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

Charter Schools are not the solution (4.00 / 1)

The quality of a student's education in Alabama depends on the income of the parents.  If the parents are in the 100k and above income range, their students have access to the best public education their tax dollars can buy. We need reform that will ensure every child, regardless of their parent's circumstance have equal access to a quality public education.

How can we ensure every child has equal access to a quality public education?

1.  Do what works.  Magnet schools are highly successful in Huntsville.  They recruit and hire highly skilled teachers, administrators and professionals.  Students have access to any and all educational tools they need which are reflected on standardized test scores.  They have racially and culturally diverse student populations, which exposes parents and students to other cultures and other points of view.   In other words they "throw  money at them". 

2.  Public School Choice.  In order to skirt around court ordered school desegregation orders, school systems have adopted the "neighborhood school concept" and use the "you can't tell people where to live" excuse when schools are majority white or majority black. They can't tell people where to live, so why do they get to tell taxpayers where their students have to attend school?  If all the schools were equal, and had equal results (like the magnet schools),  the neighborhood school concept wouldn't be a problem.  But since the quality of the neighborhood schools depends on the "hood" it's in, students who don't live in upscale hoods get a pi$$ poor school.  Let the parent's and students decide what public school to attend. 

Public school choice will also foster competition, which is a good thing.

Examples of special option public schools in Raleigh, North Carolina;

Special/optional schools

Raleigh

• Bridges Program (K-5)
• Longview School (6-12)
• Mary E. Phillips High School (9-12)
• Mt. Vernon School (6-8)
• Project Enlightenment (Pre-K)
• Richard Milburn School (6-12)
• River Oaks Middle School (6-8)
• Wake Early College of Health and Sciences (9-12]

3.  Unified School District (Metro school districts)  in order to better utilize resources.   Check out the Wake County North Carolina School district for example;

The current school system is the result of a 1976 merger between the previous (historically largely white) Wake County school system and the former (historically largely minority) Raleigh City schools. The merger was proposed initially by business leaders in the early 1970s out of concerns that continued "white flight" from Raleigh's inner-city schools would negatively impact the county's overall economy. Political and educational leaders also hoped that merging the two systems would ease court-mandated desegregation. The proposal proved initially unpopular with residents, however, who rejected it by a 3-1 margin in a non-binding referendum in 1973. School and business leaders instead convinced the North Carolina General Assembly to force the merger.^[5]

4.  An Education Lottery. Again, North Carolina as an example;

RALEIGH- Today, the North Carolina Education Lottery (NCEL) made another transfer to the state taking it over its budgeted goal for the fiscal year. The NCEL transferred over $25.3 million for sales in June. This transfer brings the tally for the fiscal year to $410.8 million and the overall tally from launch to over $1.136 billion. 

 

 

The work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives and the dreams shall never die.~Senator Edward M. Kennedy (D. MA)

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by: Redeye @ Wed Jul 01, 2009 at 17:45:59 PM CDT

Thank you for the timely information (0.00 / 0)

School choice sounds like a very fair approach.  Do systems that use it ever run into a problem with too many students wanting to transfer to the better schools so that they have to limit choice?

Work harder and work smarter!

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by: mooncat @ Wed Jul 01, 2009 at 18:16:45 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Yes (0.00 / 0)

It is my understanding parents/students choose the schools they wish to attend in order of preference, so if you don't get your first choice you get your second and so on.  There are also ratios to make sure the schools are diverse.  The racial composition of the schools must match the racial composition of the student population.  For example I believe the ratio in Huntsville is 60(white) and 40 (black).  If a large majority of the students were interested in one particular program, the district could have more than one school provide it.

The work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives and the dreams shall never die.~Senator Edward M. Kennedy (D. MA)

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by: Redeye @ Wed Jul 01, 2009 at 18:29:34 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

PS (4.00 / 1)

I was trying to say "supply and demand" regarding the popular programs.

If a large majority of the students were interested in one particular program, the district could have more than one school provide it

The work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives and the dreams shall never die.~Senator Edward M. Kennedy (D. MA)

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by: Redeye @ Wed Jul 01, 2009 at 18:37:33 PM CDT

[ Parent ]