Charter Schools Deserve a Chance

I want to discuss Jake Moser’s blog titled,  "Charter Schools Being Put Under the Spotlight." Jake’s blog talks about private charter school s receiving public funding and how the standards for these schools have recently been raised.  If the school cannot meet academic and financial accountability ratings within three years of operation, they will be closed.  Jake also talks about the limited appeal process of closing a school and whether the process is fair or not.  I would like to focus my rebuttal on the specific issue of shutting the schools down if they do not achieve suitable ratings.

I view charter schools as an option to public school.  I really do not care if they are private, public, etc.  They give kids a second chance at school when their jurisdictional public school fails them.  When I say “fails” them, I mean in academic and social ways.  A lot of charter school children might be there because of bullying at a public school that was never addressed properly or maybe because they just don’t feel they fit in but do not want to drop out of school.  I like the idea that kids have choices.  Charter schools are an alternate choice to dropping out for a lot of kids. Considering Texas has one of the highest rates of high school dropouts, it seems a second educational option would be quite the priority.

My step-son attended a charter school when public school just was not working out for him.  He suffers from anxiety and depression so a large school with 3,000 students was overwhelming.  He decided to attend a charter school and was very successful.  He received his diploma in 2010.  I am certain he would have dropped out of public school had he not had this option.   

That being said, is three years long enough to evaluate the success of a school?  It can take longer than that for the average start-up business to show profitability, so why are these schools any different?  Also, should we be holding public schools to the same standard?  I live in the Hutto School District and I see the schools consistently deliver less-than-average STAAR test scores.  There are teachers on payroll who just are not into doing their jobs.  Do we shut down these schools?  No, we just keep going and accepting these averages as the best that can be done.  I do not understand why a charter school should be held to different standards.  The Texas school expectations should be the same across the board for any and all schools receiving public funding.