Charter Schools

[EmeraldBullet]

I'm seeing tons of commercials saying the state is cutting funding for charter schools. Juts recently moved back to the area so I don't know whats going on exactly. I am a big fan of diversified education, everyone learns a different way, and one size does not fit all in my opinion. Just curious what this is all about, I honestly have no clue what these commercials are for. Thanks in advance.

[RiverDog]

I'm seeing tons of commercials saying the state is cutting funding for charter schools. Juts recently moved back to the area so I don't know whats going on exactly. I am a big fan of diversified education, everyone learns a different way, and one size does not fit all in my opinion. Just curious what this is all about, I honestly have no clue what these commercials are for. Thanks in advance.

The state supreme court declared the law authorizing them unconstitutional, the primary argument being that they are ruled by appointed rather than elected school boards. I agree with that decision. No taxation without representation.

I have mixed emotions about charter schools. On the one hand, I'm like you in that the offer an option, that competition drives quality, efficiency, and innovation, but on the other hand, the public schools are in dire enough straights without having charter schools sapping limited public funds from them. I guess in a perfect world you'd have both, but the reality is that the taxpayers cannot afford to support two systems.

[Seahawks4Ever]

It didn't help that the first charter school that opened year has been a complete disaster and they would have lost their accreditation except they were given more time to reach compliance multiple times. I don't know how many more charter schools opened this school if any. I do know that those commercials with kids claiming they were "thriving" in their charter school is phoney bulloney. The only one that was open last year was almost a complete failure and that any others that may have opened for this year have not been teaching any students long enough to have shown any improvement over a regular school.

All of our public schools all over the state have been woefully under funded by the State legislature to the point our State Supreme Court has been leveling fines against the state to the tune of thousands of dollars a day, money that is coming right out of the general fund, yet, those in the legislature of both political parties continue to drag their feet and refuse to fully fund k-12 education. All kinds of extra-curricular programs like band, drill team, and many girls and boys intramural sports have been ELIMINATED because there is no money for them. On the teachers side, the teacher's union refuses to compromise in any way and seem to believe that higher wages equate to better education for kids.

The problem with Charter schools is that the money to fund them comes directly out of the pool of money that funds all public schools. So public schools get the short end of the stick no matter what. Our children deserve better than that, When most of us went to school there were all sorts of programs both before and after school that helped us grow our minds and bodies and also kept us out of trouble. Now, kids have next to nothing, but in PRIVATE schools kids have all of that and more. But, how many parents can afford a private school?? Only so many kids can attend a charter school so what about the kids left behind???

[EmeraldBullet]

I was under the impression these charter schools are open to the public. Everything I look at online seems to confirm this. The only difference seems to be that the charter schools are ran by certified non-profits rather than unions.

I guess I feel that if charter schools have been more effective and the other public schools have been less effective with their funding it makes more sense to cut money from the less effective schools. Not saying charter schools have been more effective, I really have no idea. But from an economics stand point the less effective, not more effective, should have their budget cut. Reward the successful programs and give monetary incentive for the less effective ones to make improvements.

[burrrton]

Only so many kids can attend a charter school so what about the kids left behind???

If they do a better job educating the kids (something I'm not sure of, and opponents can't decide on), then more charter schools, of course.

Also fire shitty teachers and so on (good luck with the teachers' unions).

Funding is an issue, but there's no correlation between increased funding and increased student performance.

All of our public schools all over the state have been woefully under funded by the State legislature to the point our State Supreme Court has been leveling fines against the state to the tune of thousands of dollars a day, money that is coming right out of the general fund, yet, those in the legislature of both political parties continue to drag their feet and refuse to fully fund k-12 education.

1. Per the latest available figures, per-pupil funding has only dropped like 2% since 2008 (probably due to the recession, but I haven't researched that). If salaries are dropping, programs are being eliminated, and they can't afford books, it seems pretty tough to argue it's because the money's not there.

2. Those fines haven't come out of anything, at least not yet- the legislature has to appropriate the money for the fines, and the court has no authority to force them to do so.

[Hawktown]

The money is VERY MUCH there. It is just not appropriately distributed by any means. Then we get into teachers wages and we find a huge loss of funds for COMPLETELY UNQUALIFIED teachers. These teachers do not do very much teaching these days at all, none of them. My kids teachers from K-4 so far are very lazy, need to give kids free time so they can sit and look at there computer, they DO NOT check the kids homework they have them check there own work and never turn it in, the only time they see the kids work is at testing time and the teachers expect the parents to know how to do this RIDICULOUS common core math and to figure it out without even telling the kids how it is done and not even with examples. The current school system is a COMPLETE FAILURE and I am ashamed to be FORCED to contribute to it. After my kid finishes 5th grade we plan to Un-School our child. YES, Un-School, it is a real thing and we will be moving to a place with very low property taxes to support any public funding the least possible and be as self sufficient as possible so we will not contribute to this crap shoot gov./economy that just wants people to be slaves.

Common core math is GOING to ruin this country by itself. So will the no child left behind act which where common core stems from I'm guessing.

This is with my kid in a top 10 nationwide school and top 2 if not #1 school in the state. I call BS Thanks for the rant!

[RiverDog]

I don't feel close enough to the subject to offer a qualified opinion, except to the point that the law was unconstitutional and that we can't afford to be supporting multiple systems when we cannot even adequately support one.

But our friend mykc14 is a teacher and a football coach, and I regard him as one of the more level headed, intelligent posters in our forum. If you guys want to get an honest opinion from someone that is inside the system and is sure to have a take on the subject, I would suggest that one of you PM him and ask him to come join in on the conversation.