Many public school bureaucrats hate charter schools. It's not
hard to see why.
Charter schools embarrass local public schools. These schools
often do a better job educating students for less money. For
example, in the 1999-2000 school year, Ohio charter schools got
$2300 less per pupil in tax funds than local public schools.
Charter schools therefore spotlight regular public schools?
failure to give students a decent education with more tax money
at their disposal.
Charter schools also take tax money away from public schools.
Every time a child transfers to a charter school, the child's
former public school loses an average of $7500 per year in tax
money.
So what do local school districts do in response? School
authorities often harass charter schools by reducing their
funding, denying them access to school equipment or facilities,
putting new restrictions on existing charter schools, limiting
the number of new schools, or weakening charter-school laws.
They harass charter schools in other ways. For example, they
create convoluted application procedures or don?t give
new-school applicants enough time to process their applications.
They also use city agencies, zoning boards, or fire departments
to harass the schools with regulations. For example, the
Washington DC school district harassed a local charter school
with an asbestos removal issue that forced the school to spend
over $10 million in renovation costs. Local school districts
have an arsenal of regulatory guns with which to harass charter
schools, or reduce their numbers.
Teacher unions initially opposed charter schools. However, when
charter schools became popular, the unions changed tactics. They
now grudgingly give approval to charter schools, on certain
conditions. They often push for district control over the
schools, collective bargaining for charter-school teachers, or
other restrictions.
Some teacher unions have renewed their open opposition to these
schools with their usual lawsuits. The Ohio Federation of
Teachers filed a lawsuit that seeks to declare Ohio?s charter
school laws unconstitutional. Ohio?s charter schools have been
dragged into this lawsuit, thereby forcing them to waste
valuable time, money, and resources on legal battles. Teacher
unions use such lawsuits to try to stop or slow down the charter
school movement. Also, Washington State, and some other states,
still have no charter school laws partly because of strong
opposition by teacher unions and other interest groups who
oppose charter schools.
As a result of this harassment by state education bureaucrats,
local school districts, and teacher unions, there are not nearly
enough charter schools to fill the demand. There is a constant
waiting list for these schools, especially in low-income
minority neighborhoods. In the 2001-02 school year, the average
charter school enrolled about 242 students. About 69 percent of
these schools had waiting lists averaging 166 students per
school, or over half the school enrollment.
The over 750,000 students currently enrolled in charter schools
may seem like a lot, but that number represents little more than
1.7 percent of the approximately forty-five million children who
attend public school each year. Yet charter schools have now
been around for over ten years.
As with vouchers, how long will it take, if ever, for charter
schools to come to your neighborhood? Fifty years? Parents
should consider if they want to wait around this long while
their children suffer through twelve years of public school.
Article Copyrighted ? 2005 by Joel Turtel.
About the author:
Joel Turtel is the author of ?Public Schools, Public Menace: How
Public Schools Lie To Parents and Betray Our Children." Website:
http://www.mykidsdeserveb
etter.com, Email: lbooksusa@aol.com, Phone: 718-447-7348.
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