So I’ve seen some stuff about charter schools but I’m not from the states and don’t think my country has them (if they do I’m not aware and they aren’t well know).
They seem a little controversial and I’m not getting why (apart from what seems like gentrification. But again don’t know what they are so I might be wrong) so please ELI5
In: 10
The rules vary a bit depending on the state, because it’s down to state law.
But basically charter schools create kind of their own independent school district based on a contract (charter) signed with the state DOE. They’re still a kind of *public* school, just different from the regular school district.
This has the downside that they don’t get to use district resources, but it allows them to operate independently of district administration, so they can pursue distinct educational philosophies or approaches while still getting state funding.
My kids go to a k-8 charter school here in Idaho that follows the “harbor method.” Basically, providing a safe environment (with zero tolerance for harassment and bullying), with parent involvement, that’s also academically challenging. They tend to go on more field trips, have a slightly longer school year, with their breaks in different places, and they usually finish 8th grade a bit more advanced in most subjects than the kids from the regular school district (my 14yo is starting high school next year with all Honors math classes, a year ahead of most of the district kids, for example).
The rules vary a bit depending on the state, because it’s down to state law.
But basically charter schools create kind of their own independent school district based on a contract (charter) signed with the state DOE. They’re still a kind of *public* school, just different from the regular school district.
This has the downside that they don’t get to use district resources, but it allows them to operate independently of district administration, so they can pursue distinct educational philosophies or approaches while still getting state funding.
My kids go to a k-8 charter school here in Idaho that follows the “harbor method.” Basically, providing a safe environment (with zero tolerance for harassment and bullying), with parent involvement, that’s also academically challenging. They tend to go on more field trips, have a slightly longer school year, with their breaks in different places, and they usually finish 8th grade a bit more advanced in most subjects than the kids from the regular school district (my 14yo is starting high school next year with all Honors math classes, a year ahead of most of the district kids, for example).
The rules vary a bit depending on the state, because it’s down to state law.
But basically charter schools create kind of their own independent school district based on a contract (charter) signed with the state DOE. They’re still a kind of *public* school, just different from the regular school district.
This has the downside that they don’t get to use district resources, but it allows them to operate independently of district administration, so they can pursue distinct educational philosophies or approaches while still getting state funding.
My kids go to a k-8 charter school here in Idaho that follows the “harbor method.” Basically, providing a safe environment (with zero tolerance for harassment and bullying), with parent involvement, that’s also academically challenging. They tend to go on more field trips, have a slightly longer school year, with their breaks in different places, and they usually finish 8th grade a bit more advanced in most subjects than the kids from the regular school district (my 14yo is starting high school next year with all Honors math classes, a year ahead of most of the district kids, for example).
They’re basically just state-funded schools that have substantially more autonomy than normal. The main reason they are controversial is because often someone has some ulterior motive for operating them. Some are effectively run by extremist religious movements, and others by profit-making companies, for example.
> don’t think my country has them (if they do I’m not aware and they aren’t well know).
There are many different variants with different names in different parts of the world. In the UK, we have “free schools”, “foundation schools”, and “academies”, not to mention several kinds of state-funded religious schools, because our governments love privatisation and conservative religious movements so much that they have gone through several different waves of promoting both in education.
They’re basically just state-funded schools that have substantially more autonomy than normal. The main reason they are controversial is because often someone has some ulterior motive for operating them. Some are effectively run by extremist religious movements, and others by profit-making companies, for example.
> don’t think my country has them (if they do I’m not aware and they aren’t well know).
There are many different variants with different names in different parts of the world. In the UK, we have “free schools”, “foundation schools”, and “academies”, not to mention several kinds of state-funded religious schools, because our governments love privatisation and conservative religious movements so much that they have gone through several different waves of promoting both in education.
They’re basically just state-funded schools that have substantially more autonomy than normal. The main reason they are controversial is because often someone has some ulterior motive for operating them. Some are effectively run by extremist religious movements, and others by profit-making companies, for example.
> don’t think my country has them (if they do I’m not aware and they aren’t well know).
There are many different variants with different names in different parts of the world. In the UK, we have “free schools”, “foundation schools”, and “academies”, not to mention several kinds of state-funded religious schools, because our governments love privatisation and conservative religious movements so much that they have gone through several different waves of promoting both in education.
From publiccharters.org:
“Charter schools are public schools operating under an independent contract or ‘charter’ with an authorizing agency—typically a non-profit organization, government agency or university. The charter provides the school with operational autonomy to pursue specific educational objectives regarding curriculum, staff, and budget. It also holds them accountable to the same (often higher) standards of their district public school peers.”
Charter schools in the U.S. can vary a lot, because each state creates its own rules that the charter system schools will operate by.
Some states have allowed religious based schools as charters. Some states setup charters where the charter school gets less $ per-student than public schools. In Washington state, the charters get 75% of the funding per-student.
The controversial discussions regarding charters are often filled with supporters describing the best examples, and detractors describing the worse examples.
From publiccharters.org:
“Charter schools are public schools operating under an independent contract or ‘charter’ with an authorizing agency—typically a non-profit organization, government agency or university. The charter provides the school with operational autonomy to pursue specific educational objectives regarding curriculum, staff, and budget. It also holds them accountable to the same (often higher) standards of their district public school peers.”
Charter schools in the U.S. can vary a lot, because each state creates its own rules that the charter system schools will operate by.
Some states have allowed religious based schools as charters. Some states setup charters where the charter school gets less $ per-student than public schools. In Washington state, the charters get 75% of the funding per-student.
The controversial discussions regarding charters are often filled with supporters describing the best examples, and detractors describing the worse examples.
From publiccharters.org:
“Charter schools are public schools operating under an independent contract or ‘charter’ with an authorizing agency—typically a non-profit organization, government agency or university. The charter provides the school with operational autonomy to pursue specific educational objectives regarding curriculum, staff, and budget. It also holds them accountable to the same (often higher) standards of their district public school peers.”
Charter schools in the U.S. can vary a lot, because each state creates its own rules that the charter system schools will operate by.
Some states have allowed religious based schools as charters. Some states setup charters where the charter school gets less $ per-student than public schools. In Washington state, the charters get 75% of the funding per-student.
The controversial discussions regarding charters are often filled with supporters describing the best examples, and detractors describing the worse examples.
To understand charter schools, you first have to understand the other two major kinds of schools in the US: Public schools, and private schools.
Private schools are privately funded, meaning you pay tuition to go to them. Some have other forms of funding as well – trust funds given by past students, etc.; but the important thing is that they get no money from the government (usually). Because of this, they usually don’t have as much regulation as long as they can get their students to pass certain standardized tests or other benchmarks. Private schools also have a lot of control over who goes: as long as you aren’t discriminating on some protected grounds (race I believe is covered – but gender isn’t: there are all-boy and all-girl private schools; and religious private schools in the US are pretty common), you can pretty much decide who does and does not attend your school.
Public schools are publicly funded, meaning they are paid for and run by the government. Because of this, elected school boards have almost complete control over what gets taught; in some cases down to which books can and can not be used in classrooms. In most (maybe all) of the US, schools are primarily funded with property taxes – meaning the amount of money a school gets is based on the price of houses in the area; though States and the Federal Government provide some money through larger programs. Public schools are also publicly available – in most cases, the only rule is that you live in a certain area; sometimes just “in the same city”.
Charter schools are basically publicly funded, but operate more like private schools. Like public schools, they get money primarily from the government (Some have individual grants, often based on teaching goals or ideological reasons), which comes from the local school board(s – some get money from multiple cities; or from both city and county school boards). Also, like public schools, they can’t charge tuition or have other financial requirements for attendance. Like private schools, they get less oversight – more than private schools, but sometimes way less than public schools. They also have more control over who gets to attend – in some cases, nearly as much as private schools.
…
Regarding the controversy.
There’s three main problems that some charter schools run afoul of – all of them enough to earn charter schools as a unit a reputation:
Fueling these problems is the fact that charter schools are funded by school districts. Because of this, and the fact that schools in the US are chronically underfunded and undersupported, many supporters of public schools see charter schools as taking resources from public schools. If charter schools were competing for students and money on equal grounds, this might be less of a problem – and if there were more than enough resources, this wouldn’t be a problem – but, as these problems will illustrate, enough charter schools exist that take advantage of the system that there is ill will between public school supporters and charter school supporters.
The first problem is that charter schools can select their students – and many take blatant advantage of this. Notably, students who don’t speak English, students with moderate to severe special needs, and other students who have higher needs often aren’t given the chance to go to charter schools. These students often cost the schools they *do* go to a lot of money. And, on the other hand, charter schools are very happy to not only take in, but sometimes make offers to, students who can bring in money: school performance groups (band, chorus, dance, etc.), competition groups (sports or academic), and so on. Because of these things, there is a perception that charter schools aren’t carrying their fair share of the load from the public school system they are drawing students from.
A second problem is that charter schools aren’t always required to have credentialed teachers teaching classes. At least in most states, you have to have a teaching credential issued by the state you are in (some states allow credentials from certain other states) in order to teach in a public school, with some exceptions (computer science, PE, some arts – again, varies by state); and without a teaching credential, you aren’t allowed to teach – at a public school. AND, when they are required, they aren’t bound by district pay schedules – which means they can pick and choose the best teachers in areas where there are more demand for teachers (notably, math, science, and special ed – at least where I am, there is a lot of turnover in those areas). This also creates a problem with oversight – credentialed teachers are “mandated reporters”, meaning that they legally must report child abuse if they believe it is happening, and are trained in what child abuse looks like (at least a little); but if a charter school doesn’t have credentialed teachers there, child abuse can go undetected.
Third are the outright frauds. While some of these schools perpetuate fraud on the students, taking in students without teaching anything; more perpetuate fraud on the state, either claiming students they aren’t teaching (and sometimes don’t exist) or not teaching to the requirements (often the case for religious schools). While these schools almost always get caught out, it’s usually after getting several years of government money without anything to show for it. And while this is the least prevalent of the three problems; it happens enough that even charter school supporters have to acknowledge this as one of the great problems with charter schools.
And I’m going to go a little more into detail about religious charter schools – because this IS a MAJOR nationwide issue. In many places, religious communities (often conservative; most frequently Christian but occasionally Jewish or Muslim; almost always in large towns and small cities) will manage to take over a school board, and divert a significant portion of the budget to their charter schools at the expense of everyone else. Many attacks on public education from the Republican Party are intended to move money away from public schools and towards Christian charter schools; where they can both discriminate against people as long as they don’t get caught doing it on protected class (“the student doesn’t fit in” covers a lot – including race; and entrance tests that cover specific material that some races are less likely to know covers a lot more).
…
By way of source:
I am a substitute teacher at a set of charter schools. I am friends with many teachers both in the same set of charter schools, as well as multiple public school districts. My experience includes watching as one of the schools I worked for go through “recharter” – getting it’s permission to be open using government money renewed – which it failed, causing the school to close. I also spent part of high school at a charter school.
The charter schools I work at are – I believe – some of the good ones. There’s also a local charter high school that specifically takes “problem cases” – students who don’t fit in well at other high schools, and focuses on getting them past the GED (a test that, if passed, gives the equivalent of a high school degree) and then the support they need; and I’ve talked with at least one of the teachers there.
However, I’ve also seen the bad of them, including my own high school experience, where I might have been better able to pass the AP Physics test than my physics teacher (I believe she was credentialed – just not in science. See previous comment about math and science teachers being in high demand). That school also didn’t have, as far as I’m aware, any special education teachers – because it didn’t need them: if you needed one, you weren’t at that school.
Latest Answers