Charter Schools Pro and Con

It is up a third try. I have mixed feelings about Charter Schools. On one hand, creative teachers and administators can get together to create a school with vision and passion. For example, Holly and the Skyview teachers tried to create a dream school five years ago but they couldn't sell their school. Charter School legislation would give them the system to leverage to create their own school with public money. They could only make this work if the community bought in. So Charter Schools can mean power to teachers and community. It isn't just taking away from public schools.
On the other hand, it can be a threat to the way public schools run now. A little like betting at the Blackjack table. We will see.


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Saturday, October 02, 2004 - 01:35 A.M.

Charter schools: Referendum 55

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What it means: If it passes, this proposal would allow a limited number of charter schools to open, operated by qualified nonprofit companies and funded with public school dollars. Charter schools would negotiate contracts with local school boards, and would have to follow some state laws - but not all - relating to public schools. Student admission could be limited based only on age and grade level, not disability or performance.

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Yes
I love orderly classrooms, strict study schedules and standardized tests.

But not everyone is like me. At my public high school, many students were bored by the traditional classroom format. They weren't apathetic; they were simply uninspired.

Referendum 55 offers a promising alternative: charter schools, which allow for increased flexibility and innovative teaching within a small classroom setting.

A Department of Education study suggests that the average math and reading scores of charter-school students are lower than those of their public school counterparts.

However, this doesn't accurately reflect charter school performance. Some disadvantaged students attend charter schools. Adjusting the study's data to account for this, there's almost no difference between the scores of most charter and public schools.

Further, if approved, Washington state charter schools will be held strictly accountable. They'll have five years to prove that they perform as well as public schools — a big accomplishment, considering that charter school students often did poorly in public schools.

It's true that charter schools are in an experimental stage. But it's also true that children continue to fail even in well-funded public schools — perhaps because individual learning styles aren't accommodated in a conventional environment.

Charter schools can help, blending creativity with stringent accountability.

Vote yes for Referendum 55, and give students another chance at success.

— Christina Asavareungchai

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No
America is a disposable society. It's not the best characteristic of this country. Instead of bothering to fix what we have, we'd rather throw it out for something new.

And that is what some are trying to do to education with a charter schools referendum.

Instead of fixing public education problems through increasing much needed funding, proponents of charter schools think that diverting public money to schools that operate as private businesses will solve the problem.

Proponents will argue that once you see a smoothly operated charter school, you'll understand the positive impact they can have on students.

The exact same thing could be said of public schools. Washington state has excellent public schools. Of course, there are also some not-so-excellent schools, but they won't improve by taking much-needed funding away and diverting it to charter schools.

Referendum 55 was placed on the ballot — thanks largely to a strong effort from the Washington Education Association — to correct a late-session attempt by state legislators to start charter schools in Washington.

A vote against the referendum will put the focus back on public schools and, I hope, stop wasting time and money on the charter school experiment.

Washington voters have already said no to similar ballot measures in 1997 and 2000. Two strikes in such a short time are more than enough, but for sporting sake, let's make it three. Then we can work on fixing what we already have.

— Drew Avery

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