Charter schools are elementary and high schools in the United States that are publically funded (and like other schools, can accept private donations) but have been liberated from some of the regulatory framework that applies to other public schools in exchange for some type of accountability for producing specific results, which are set forth in each school’s charter . These schools are open and attended by choice. While charter schools provide an alternative to other public schools, they are still part of the public education system and therefore are not allowed to charge fees .
The intention of most charter school legislation is to:
- Increase opportunities for learning and access to quality education for all students
- Create choice for parents and students within the public school system
- Provide a system of accountability for results in public education
- Encourage innovative teaching practices
- Create new professional opportunities for teachers
- Encourage community and parent engagement in public education
- Leverage improved public education throughout the system
Some charter schools provide a curriculum that specializes in a certain field — e.g., arts or mathematics. Others try to provide a better and more efficient general education than neighboring public schools. Some charter schools are established by teachers, parents, or activists who feel restricted by traditional public schools.
The three reasons most often cited to create a charter school are to:
- Realize an educational vision
- Gain autonomy
- Serve a special population
The charter school idea in the United States was originated by Ray Budde , a professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. It was popularized by Albert Shanker, President of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) in 1988 when he called for the reform of the public schools by establishing “charter schools” or “schools of choice.” Minnesota was the first state to pass a charter school law, in 1991 . California was second, in 1992. As of 2009, 41 states and the District of Columbia have laws establishing charter schools . Today, over 1.5 million children in 41 states and the District of Columbia attend one of more than 4,900 public charter schools.
There are two principles that guide charter schools. First is that they will operate as autonomous public schools, through waivers from many of the procedural requirements of district public schools. The second is that charter schools are accountable for student accomplishment. Charter schools are held accountable to their sponsor—a local school board, state education agency, university, or other entity—to produce positive academic results and adhere to the charter contract.
According to the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, twenty-six states and the District of Columbia have some type of limits, or caps, on charter schools. Although an estimated 365,000 students are on charter school wait lists nationwide, these states restrict the number of charter schools that may be authorized and/or the number of students a single school can enroll. Many of these caps are the result of political trade-offs among competing political interests. Andrew Rotherham, co-founder of Education Sector and opponent of charter school caps, has written, “One might be willing to accept this pent-up demand if charter school caps, or the debate over them, were addressing the greater concern of charter school quality. But this is not the case. Statutory caps as they exist now are too blunt a policy instrument to sufficiently address quality. They fail to differentiate between good schools and lousy schools and between successful charter school authorizers and those with a poor track record of running charter schools. And, all the while, they limit public schooling options and choices for parents.”
Charter school funding is dictated by the state. In many states, charter schools are funded by transferring per-pupil state aid from the school district where the charter school student resides. The Federal Elementary and Secondary Education Act, Part B, Sections 502 – 511 also authorize funding grants for charter schools. Additionally, charter schools, like other public schools, may receive funding from private donors or foundations.
A 2008 study that looked at charter school funding in all 40 charter states and the District of Columbia found that charter students are funded on average at 61 cents compared to every dollar for their district peers, with charter funding averaging $6,585 per pupil compared to $10,771 per pupil at conventional district public schools.
Current laws have been characterised as either “strong” or “weak.” “Strong-law” states mandate considerable autonomy from local labor-management agreements and bureaucracy, allow a significant number of charter schools to be authorized by multiple charter-granting agencies, and allocate a level of funding consistent with the statewide per pupil average.
without doubt the most radical experimentation with charter schools has occurred in New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. The New Orleans Public Schools system is currently engaged in reforms aimed at decentralizing power away from the pre-Katrina school board central bureaucracy to individual school principals and charter school boards, monitoring charter school performance by granting renewable, five-year operating contracts permitting the closedown of those not succeeding, and vesting choice in parents of public school students, allowing them to enroll their children in almost any school in the district. The majority of public school students in New Orleans now attend charter schools, the only city in the nation where public charters so dominate.
School choice is a term used to describe a wide array of programs aimed at giving families the chance to choose the school their children will attend. In general , school choice does not give preference to one form of schooling or another, rather it manifests itself whenever a student attends school outside of the one they would have been assigned to by geographic default. The most common options offered by school choice programs are open enrolment laws that allow students to attend other public schools, private schools, charter schools, tax credit and deductions for expenses related to schooling, vouchers, and homeschooling. In U.S. political discourse it refers exclusively to programs that would provide public funds to privately run schools, since parents already have the option of sending their child to the private school of their choice (within their economic means).
The goal of school choice programs is to give parents more control over their child’s education, and to allow parents to pursue the most appropriate learning environments for children. For example school choice may enable parents to choose a school that provides religious instruction for their children; stronger discipline; better foundational skills including reading, writing, mathematics, and science; everyday skills from handling money to farming.
Others argue that since children from impoverished families almost exclusively attend public schools, school choice programs would allow these students to leave poorly performing schools and obtain a superior education, thereby empowering students and their parents, not school administrators. Promoters of school choice say this would offer more equal opportunities for low-income students to attend as good of schools as the middle classes instead of the current two-tiered system which educates the middle and upper classes, but not the lower classes, particularly minorities.
