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
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“Charter” here means “contract”. A Charter School is one that is owned and operated by a private business, but receives taxpayer money (government funding) in order to actually work. Unlike purely Private Schools, a Charter School cannot charge tuition as part of its contract to the government.
One big reason why they are controversial is that many people are not satisfied with the quality of existing public schools and would rather see their tax money going in to supporting and developing the public school system itself, rather than going to specialized charter schools.
They can also be controversial because they might be fulfilling the terms of their contract (meaning, they might be teaching kids what the school district requires them to learn about cells in biology or the quadratic formula in algebra), but they can also have a very specific agenda based heavily on, for instance, certain religious views. Some people are not OK with the fact that they pay taxes that then goes into a school where students are learning potentially discriminatory or biased material.
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