charter challenges
In Texas, Education Commissioner Robert Scott is quoted in The Austin American-Statesman that he intends to make it easier for high-performing charter schools in the state to expand. But in Virginia, despite the new governor-elect’s support for charter schools, significant hurdles stand in the way of any quick moves to ease approval of charter schools, The Washington Post says. Do you think the rules for establishing and operating charter schools should be standardized across the nation?
Leave your opinion below.
November 10th, 2009 @ 6:33 pm
I’ve had only a light-to-moderate amount of experiences with charter schools, but I am beginning to form opinions based on what I’ve observed so far.
First — local school boards can be very opinionated with regard to their perspective (and judgment) on charter schools. It is not necessarily a wise choice to let the final say rest with the boards who have their own schools’ interest (and funding) in mind. I’ve seen examples of this situation unfold.
Second — after some experiences interacting with charter school administrators this past fall, I am of the opinion that some sort of vetting process, training process, or certification process needs to exist for charter schools.
I say this because the charters I visited with seemed, generally, less organized than the comparable public school districts. I talked with some charter school administrators that had gone through failure of their business model.
I know of one state that requires vetting of the charter school’s business plan before the charter can be approved, and offers extensive support to the board members of potential charters. This seems to be the right direction to ensure that charters are built on solid foundations, and not rushed or pushed into opening too early without a good business model.