I've been wading around in Charter School world this week. I talked with a person with a grand idea to build a charter school the right way for the right reason. It seemed like a grand an noble solution to the entrenched disfunction of our urban schools. I offered support, resources, and my time and energy to get things started right. Some people would say that I was abandoning the public school concept, but if schools are going to happen, they should at least be good places to learn. I then read the Roland Fryer article posted on the Freakonomics blog about the traits of successful charters. I was starting to see that there is a path of success for charter schools, which is hard to believe from all of the negative and failure in Saint Louis surrounding charters. Now, I watched this. This video talks about how big business is eating up public funding through the charter school movement. It is the worst possible scenario. The hope of an idea just a few days ago was crushed because the system is being stolen, and the bad is swallowing the hope of the good.
I am the administrator over two charter schools, and I am proud to say that they are independently operated. We do not work with any for-profit managements companies, and I think we have been successful. The hardest part of this scenario is the start-up of the school... without the initial capital starting a school is very difficult.
ReplyDeleteI agree that for profit companies are ruining the charter school movement... however, I think for profit companies have hurt many areas of education. Just look at the costs involved with textbook companies, educational software, school furniture and so much more.
Good luck with your ideas and don't let the bad of some of the schools stop you from doing what's best for kids.
Curt