First and foremost, I would like to extend a “hello” to my new readers. Throughout these civic blogs, we will investigate and explore the nuances surrounding the United States’ education system and the associated controversies. One of the longest-standing controversies in our education system is regarding the role of charter schools. It also appears that this controversy will resurface soon with President Biden’s call for a ban on for-profit charter schools and increased accountability.
To fully understand the controversies surrounding charter schools, we must understand what a charter school is. Fundamentally, a charter school is a school that receives public funding but operates in a semi-autonomous manner. Its operations are separate from the state’s curriculum requirements but in return, must achieve higher academic performance levels. While it is true that the rules and regulations affecting charter schools vary based on state and district, this definition of charter school informs the debates and controversies that surround them.
Historically speaking, charter schools were designed by community members to give parents more options on where to send their kids to school. The difference between charter schools and private schools is that the parents do not need to pay extra money to send their kids to a charter school. This rationale is integral to proponents’ defense of charter schools. Proponents argue that charter schools offer parents an opportunity to send their kids to well-funded schools, and that charter schools are doubly important for areas with under-funded public schools. Proponents of charter schools further their argument by citing a rigorous study funded by the Department of Education. The authors of the study concluded that “schools with the highest proportions of disadvantaged students…had a positive impact on math scores” (Gleason 27). Proponents argue that this capability to aid disadvantaged students can ameliorate some of the effects of systemic racism.
Conversely, opponents of charter schools may argue that charter schools play a role in the perpetuation of systemic racism. The argument is that charter schools obfuscate the underlying issues in the educational system; pointing to charter schools as a solution to unequal funding for schools ignores the fact that not everyone can attend these schools. Furthermore, some opponents suggest that the dual-schooling system created by charter schools is analogous to the segregated schooling of the Jim Crow era. Additionally, an opponent of charter schools is likely to cite the National Conference of State Legislators’ analysis on charter schools. The analysis states that “charter schools are not, on average, better or worse in student performance than the traditional public school counterparts” (Shen 1).
Prominent Democrats such as Elizabeth Warren have suggested that the expansion of charter schools have siphoned money away from existing public schools. She was joined by Bernie Sanders in calling for a ban on all for-profit charter schools.
While the concept of charter schools is innocuous at first, I think that there are some issues with the way it currently functions. The most apparent issue with the charter school system is the fact that it is siphoning money away from underfunded public schools. The primary goal of the public education system should be to offer every student a high-quality education. It seems like creating more schools unnecessarily is antithetical to the goal of giving every student a high-quality education.
One of the valid points made by the proponents of charter schools is the fact that charter schools can offer improved education for disadvantaged students. However, after my preliminary research, it appears that any improvement in education is due to teachers having higher expectations at charter schools.
I do believe that charter schools can play a role in the future of our education system. I believe that charter schools should function as a substitute for traditional education as opposed to a substitute for public schools. For example, we could have charter schools that function as a performing arts school for students who are pursuing arts or theatre. Alternatively, there could be vocational charter schools for students who wanted specialized training for their careers.
Thank you for reading. If you have any contentions or comments I’d be happy to hear them! If you have any other educational civic issues you would like to see a blog written about, please comment them down below!
Works Cited
Gleason, Philip, et al. “The Evaluation of Charter School Impacts.” Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education, June 2010, ies.ed.gov/ncee/pubs/20104029/pdf/20104029.pdf.
Shen, Yilan. “Research.” Charter Schools: Research and Report, National Conference of State Legislators, www.ncsl.org/research/education/charter-schools-research-and-report.aspx.
Leave a Reply