Public vs. Charter Schools Essay

Are charter schools the right choice to the educational needs of our children? Charter schools are tuition free public schools created and operated by parents, organizations, and community groups to fill student’s educational needs. Charter schools consider educating their students as the priority, and identify how children’s learning needs are different from each other, so they came up with different ways on educating their students such as learning in small groups, or by participating in hands on learning. Along with their unique programs such as art, math, and science, charter schools are also the stronger academic choice for students. Parents should consider charter schools for their children’s

Open to all children, free of tuition, and does not have special entrance requirements, charter schools believe that children should have the opportunity to achieve at a high level. When creating charter schools, they focused on a desire to create greater flexibility for innovation within public education. It was hoped that successful innovations could be adapted to benefit public education more broadly. (NEA, 2017). Charter schools also, foster partnership between parents, teachers, and students in hopes of creating an environment in which parents can be more involved, teachers are allowed to innovate, and students are provided with structure they need to learn.

In the United States, getting an education is very important. Children spend thirteen years of their life learning English, history, math, science, and various other subjects so that they may one day be a productive college student or a working class citizen. In fact, “There are 33,619 private schools in the United States, serving 5.4 million PK-12 students. Private schools account for 25 percent of the nation’s schools and enroll 10 percent of all PK-12 students” (“Council for American Private Education”). Parents face many issues when deciding which school is right for their child. However, the factors that determine their choice of a private or public school are often the results of various essentials that closely mirror the parent’s ideology in regards to education. Parents should send their children to a private school because private schools have smaller class sizes, the curriculum is more challenging, and the school environment is much safer than public schools.

In like a manner, Charter schools improve the learning environments for students and help improve focus on learning and achievement. To a direct quote from the RAND Corporation, “Charter schools are publicly funded schools that operate outside direct school district control and are intended to provide educational choice to families, reduce bureaucratic constraints on educators and provide competitive pressure to conventional public schools.” Which however signifies, Charter schools adapted to student’s specific needs and abilities, as well as offer individualized choices and alternative pathways in the educational system. For a counterargument, Opponents to school choice argue that “test scores alone may not fully measure the benefits of charter schools for their students.” For more reasoning of charter schools, the existences of charter schools, improved specific, or challenging curriculum offerings could also serve to increase the competition between traditional and charter public schools. Increase flexibility for staff and teachers could “reduce bureaucratic constraints on educators.” The environment in charter schools is more socially supportive, and is less prone to

Furthermore, focus is critical to the student’s ability to succeed and the charter’s ability to educate its students. With special attention, the school can demonstrate a comprehensive strategy stressing a field of study, such as technical or artistic disciplines. In this way, getting students ready for the real world, gears them up for college, sets them up for continued success. "The charter schools' superiority was greater in states where they had been in existence longer and enrolled more students." ("The Charter Advantage," 2005) A school’s assertive actions can weed out teachers who are not performing adequately. Teachers must be able to teach in a way (not necessarily mainstream) that instructs, inspires, and motivates students to excel. Charter schools have the ability to do that. Students may not have the same abilities or interests, but the teacher must allow the student’s

Charter schools are unique public schools that is allowed the freedom to be more innovative while being held accountable for advancing student achievement. These charter schools are not private schools, they do not charge for tuition and they are open to all children within specific boundaries. Research has demonstrated that charter schools make picks up in the urban community with students who have veritably been undeserved by traditional state funded schools. Charter schools outscored their traditional school peers in 25 of the 41 cities in math, and 23 of the 42 cities in reading. On average, charter schools had no significant impacts on student’s achievement. Charter schools help enhance student learning, empower the utilization of new and imaginative educating strategies, and give schools an approach to move from a lead based to an execution based arrangement of responsibility. Public schools are like charter schools except for the freedom that a charter school has. And private school is based on tuition and that is funded by charities and tax holders in that community.

There are a number of ways that charter schools give parents greater individual control over their childrens’ education. No longer is a child bound to attend a particular school based on the geographical location of his or her home. Parents have the freedom to select a charter school that they feel would best suit the needs of their children1. Parents also have a greater say in the affairs of charter schools compared to public schools. In many instances, parents serve on the “board of education” governing the charter school, a board whose context is determined by a school’s charter and not state law. This contrasts with the traditional public school board that is limited to seven members elected from the community-at-large, regardless of whether board members have children in school. Moreover, a charter school board is entirely occupied with the operations of just one school instead of an entire district. Charter school supporters argue that this leads to less bureaucracy and greater efficiency in creating school policy that ultimately benefits students.

Why choose to go to Charter School rather than public school? Charter schools are public school of choice, meaning families choose for their children. Federal legislation provides grants to help charters to manage start-up costs. They create better educational opportunities for the students therefore they have higher expectations in teaching. Charter Schools and zoned (public) schools are tuition free but unfortunately not everyone can get in to Charter school, since it works by lottery. Everyone has the opportunity to apply and has a choice to attend Charlet School if the students are lucky enough to get in. Charter schools are more effective for three reasons: they have higher graduation rates, teachers are more prepared and devoted to their students, and teachers take a greater responsibility for their students as they compete against Zoned Schools.

Since the 1980s, charter schools have allowed families to exercise school choice, a practice that had begun a few decades earlier when parents preferred to control their children’s education because of religious views or racial prejudices. As dissatisfaction with the performance public schools grew during the late 20th century, parents called on government to subsidize an arrangement where children could receive adequate education outside of the traditional public school system. Thus, two major school choice devices emerged: charter schools, privately run schools that receive public funding, and tuition vouchers, which cover some or all of tuition at participating private schools.

Charter schools differ from traditional public schools on three basic principles: accountability, choice and autonomy. Charter schools are held accountable for their ability to educate students, management of finances and handle operations. If they do not meet the guidelines established by the charter they are closed. They give families a choice as to what school their children will attend. Finally, charter schools have more autonomy than traditional public schools. They are able to make their own decisions regarding curriculum and school governance and can focus on academic achievement instead of bureaucracy. (“Resistance Hinders Success,” 2004)

Education is a very important part of a person’s life. Every parent want the best thing for their children. They want their children to be happy and to be able to achieve their dreams and be what they want to be, which is why they want the best education for their children. Because, almost everyone would agree that being well – educated is the closest way to success life and good future. But, their desire to send their kids to the best school have to face many obstacles. One of these obstacles would be choosing school for their kids. In the U.S., there are three types of school: public school, charter school and private school. Private schools are usually very selective, has better performance than government-funded school and has expensive tuition fee. Rich families would send their kids to private schools because they could afford the expense. However, for a normal family, paying the expense for private schools would be overwhelming. So, there options are narrowed between charter schools and public schools. There have been many debates on whether charter schools or public schools provide students with better education. But, there are obvious evidences that charter schools are generally better than public schools:

Many charter schools are known for their rigorous programs that challenge students to fulfill specific requirements that are different from traditional schools. Charter schools also value the idea of cultivating students with a talent for arts, technology or music (Chen). Institutions such as charter schools may be viewed as open or loosely constructed based on the unique guidelines displayed in each school’s charter, but in reality this is untrue because the individuality of each charter is what allows each student to excel based on the personalization and attention given to every single student who attends. A charter school has the potential to reach out into the community and help children who are not able to fit in at a traditional public school and it may allow the student to learn from a new perspective. Any child is allowed to apply to a charter school and they are admitted on a first-come, first served basis or through a lottery. The decision is not made on race or sex of the child and there is a fair chance for every student. A charter school is a great alternative to private school because there is no tuition fee at a charter school which is run by the state. Operators of the charter schools are able to provide children with a school that will create new and improved services which are lacking in the public school districts (“Charter School FAQ”). A charter school can also help

Charter schools give struggling minorities access to better education. Because charter schools often have more applicants than spaces, they must resort to “weighted lottery.” This means that the kids who are struggling to get a good education get picked first. This gives an equal opportunity to all families. Picking from a lottery also increases racial diversity in the classes. An advantage of this is that students critical thinking and collaborative skills all improve when put in a more racially diverse setting. The students in charter schools also benefit from extra days of schooling. Usually, charter schools get three to ten additional weeks of school versus public schools who do not. All students including the minorities get extra days

Although very risky, starting a charter school has its advantages too. A study performed by Phi Delta Kappa International focuses on the differences between charter schools and public schools. This study gives a comprehensive interpretation of the advantages charter schools have over public schools. The study mainly focuses on the management aspect of the charter schools and shows how principals of charter schools use their power to put their schools ahead of public schools. A former public school principle interviewed eight charter school principals on how they hired teachers. The interviews suggested “that charters schools are serving as exciting seedbeds for new approaches to finding, employing, and keeping better teachers.”( Finn) Interestingly enough some principals would be willing to hire non-state certified teachers to meet their standards of quality. These principals were looking for was a teacher who was “highly intelligent, had prestigious college background, was articulate, and liked kids.”(Finn) Although they would be taking a risk hiring someone without the standard teaching qualifications set by the state, they knew that with their intelligence and prestige, they would strive to educate the children as they would themselves. The charter school system gives the principal the power to hire teachers which enables them to select the teachers that match the needs and culture of their school. Most of these principals look for overachievers, those "who want to

A benefit of placing charter schools in a school district is school choice. Parents appear to support the option of deciding where their children attend school. According to Andy Smarick, “In New York, 12,000 students are on charter wait lists; in Massachusetts 19, 000; in Pennsylvania 27,000” (2008). Additionally, an Annual Survey of America’s Charter Schools 2010 notes that an average of 239 children is on a waiting list to enter each charter school in America, which is a 21% surge since last year (Center for Education Reform, 2010). These studies indicate the importance of school choice to parents and their desire to enroll their children in charter schools. Another example that shows parental demand for charter schools comes from The Evaluation of Charter School Impacts a study published in June 2009 by the United States Department of Education. The study showed parents of charter school students were more satisfied with their children’s academic achievement and social development compared to parents of students in traditional school setting.