Parent Info
Why Choose Charter Schools?
Educational quality: The primary reason for charter schools is to make sure every child has access to a quality education. With the freedom and choice to do so, charters set higher standards and must meet them in order to stay open, unlike most other public schools which can remain open no matter how poorly they perform.
Focus on the kids: Perhaps most importantly, a charter school is set up around the needs of children, not around the needs of adults. The focus should always be on programs designed to help children succeed, no matter what it takes.
Safer, stronger communities: Charter schools typically engage local businesses and other organizations to help provide resources and services to the school and its families, creating a community hub. Whether turning an inner-city ghetto into a bustling and safer neighborhood, or bringing families in rural America together, charters have a proven effect on the strength and safety of a community.
Do Charter Schools Cost taxpayers more money?
NO. Charter schools are public schools. Like district public schools, they are funded according to enrollment and receive funding from the district and the state according to the number of students attending. Simply stated, the money follows the student.
Here is an article that can help put it in perspective for you:
Does my charter school kid take away
from yours?
It happened again.
I was standing in line at my favorite coffee shop when I
ran into a mom from years back.
We hugged, air kissed, and OMG’d before asking about
each other’s families. We soon determined that neither of
us had moved and still lived within a couple of miles. She
casually asked:
“Where do your kids go to school?”
“We’re in the charter school,” I replied. “And yours?”
Her smile had frozen slightly as she answered the name
of the neighborhood school.
“You know, you are responsible for taking away funds
from our school by going to that charter school,” she said
straight faced.
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“Well, since your kids are supposed to be at my kid’s
school and the per-kid-money goes to the school your kid
goes to—my kid’s school is affected when you defect,”
the woman explained.
“Oh that,” I answered. “In that case your kid is taking
away from my charter school by not attending there.”
She did not see the parallel.
But isn’t that the truth? If we follow the logic that every
child who does not attend the same school as our kids is
“taking away” from the schools which they don’t attend—
doesn’t that formula work the same in reverse?
Yes, state and federal funding–per pupil revenue (PPR)—
follows the student to the public school which they are
enrolled. But doesn’t that just plain make sense? Isn’t it
the school which our student attends that actually pays
for the expense of educating the kid?
The only solution to have all funding go to one single
school–would be to only have one school for all the kids
in the state.
Boy! That would sure save us a lot of money. I can see it
now; hundreds of thousands of kids filing single line into
an education super dome to be schooled by one teacher
at the fifty yard line. It would certainly solve that all
state, federal, local tax, grants and donations went to
the same facility.
That would be a swell idea if education quality was not
an issue. But good education is not possible if the good
for the child is not being considered.
And I can guarantee that it was the good our children
which both the coffee shop mom and I had in mind when
we both enrolled in two different schools.
There is not one school which is perfect for all kids. A
parent’s right to choosing the best education fit for
his/her children should never be reduced to an issue of
your kids versus mine.
Written by Karin Piper, author of Charter Schools, The Ultimate Handbook for Parents