Charter vs. Public Schools

Charter vs. Public Schools: It's a tough choice for parents

by Casey Ferrand

Parents in two Caddo Parish school districts will have a tough choice to make next school year. They must decide to send their children to a charter school, operated by the state, or to a new middle school established by the Caddo School Board.

Bill Minix is a board member with the MLK Neighborhood Association, says the school board's decision to open to new middle schools to compete for students in the Linear and Linwood districts may be the competition the students need.

"I think choice breeds competition and in the end all of the schools will get better if people are competing to do the right thing and that's to provide high quality of education," Minix said.

Minix questions if parents should continue to send their children to Caddo schools. "These schools have been failing for more than a decade and I don't see where any parent would make the decision to send their child to a failing school,' Minix said.

Minix says it's best for parents to become educated on both charter school and the plan Caddo Parish is offering. Then, weigh the options before deciding what is best for your student.

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Can Merit Pay for Teachers Work?

It seems to be here:

Students at Heritage Peak Charter School in North Highlands go to class when they want, leave when they want and chew gum if they want.

There is no dress code, no designated lunch period and no physical education class on campus.

Yet student test scores and graduation rates have continued to improve at the 4-year-old school, even more so since merit pay for teachers was instituted during the past school year.

Since then there has been a 50-point increase in the school's overall API scores, said Executive Director Paul Keefer. He said 78 percent of 10th-graders passed both the English-language arts and mathematics sections of the California High School Exit Exam on the first try, up from average scores in the 60th percentile in the 2006-07 school year. Thirteen of the school's 80 graduating seniors have been accepted to a four-year college this year, compared with one last year.

It's really true, that one size does not fit all:

Heritage Peak, a public charter school, teaches kindergarten through 12th-graders from throughout the region, using a hybrid model of independent study, home schooling and classroom instruction. The school also has satellite offices in Vacaville and Lodi.

"Our goal is to keep them, get them interested in learning and get them into a four-year university," Keefer said.

Many students come to Heritage Peak because they have failed in a traditional school and need to make up credits, said school board President Sonja Cameron. Most of Heritage Peak's 682 students didn't fit in at other schools, she said. Some were bullied or had behavior problems; others had always been home-schooled.

"We started the school with the idea that one shoe doesn't fit all," Cameron said.

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Is Obama an Education Hero?

Not according to Juan Williams, National Public Radio Sr. Correspondent/Fox News Political Contributor. He has titled his piece: Obama's Outrageous Sin Against Our Kids

As I watch Washington politics I am not easily given to rage.

Washington politics is a game and selfishness, out-sized egos and corruption are predictable.

But over the last week I find myself in a fury.

The cause of my upset is watching the key civil rights issue of this generation — improving big city public school education — get tossed overboard by political gamesmanship. If there is one goal that deserves to be held above day-to-day partisanship and pettiness of ordinary politics it is the effort to end the scandalous poor level of academic achievement and abysmally high drop-out rates for America’s black and Hispanic students.

Juan goes on...

It is really upsetting to see that the Heritage Foundation has discoverd that 38 percent of the members of Congress made the choice to put their children in private schools. Of course, Secretary Duncan has said he decided not to live in Washington, D.C. because he did not want his children to go to public schools there. And President Obama, who has no choice but to live in the White House, does not send his two daughters to D.C. public schools, either. They attend a private school, Sidwell Friends, along with two students who got there because of the voucher program.

This reckless dismantling of the D.C. voucher program does not bode well for arguments to come about standards in the effort to reauthorize No Child Left Behind. It does not speak well of the promise of President Obama to be the “Education President,’ who once seemed primed to stand up for all children who want to learn and especially minority children.

And its time for all of us to get outraged about this sin against our children.

What do you think?

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More with Ben Chavis on minorities in school

Ben Chavis & Teacher's Unions

Here is a clip from the extra features on the Flunked DVD, featuring Ben Chavis.

Do We Need Education Consultants?

Advocates Question Spending On Education Consultants

By Gina Smith - The (Columbia State)

With nearly 3,000 teachers' jobs on the line, school-choice advocates are questioning why the State Department of Education is spending millions on consultants, some of whom are politically connected.

That includes more than $58,000 paid so far this fiscal year to Democratic consultant Zeke Stokes, who ran State Superintendent of Education Jim Rex's successful 2006 campaign, catapulting the only Democrat into statewide office.

Because of state budget cuts and the uncertainty of whether federal stimulus money will be used to back fill school districts' budgets next year, as many as 5,200 school positions — including 2,700 teaching positions — might be eliminated, according to a State Department of Education survey.

“The last thing we want to see is the front line of education — teachers — being cut,” said Randy Page, president of South Carolinians for Responsible Government, an organization critical of Rex that advocates tax credits for parents who home-school or send their children to private schools.

“In this economy, should contractors and consultants be that big of a part of the mix? Tough questions need to be asked on whether some of these contracts are something we really need,” Page said.

The State Department of Education said consultants save taxpayers' money. To date for this fiscal year, the department has spent $3.57 million on professional work contracted out.

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No Teacher of the Year for You... If You Work for a Charter School

Charter schools excluded from Teacher of the Year
By Ron Barnett

Ed Kaczmarczyk is the Teacher of the Year for Greenville County Technical Charter High, but he will have no chance at competing for that honor at the district and state level.

That's because Greenville County School District officials interpret the state's charter school law to mean that charter school teachers are not eligible because charter schools are autonomous from the school district.

A Greenville County lawmaker has introduced legislation that would require the district to let Teachers of the Year at charter schools that are authorized by the district to participate in the competition, just as they do on other counties.

"The Greenville County School District may not deny a charter school, charter school teacher, or charter school student anything that is otherwise available to a public school, public school teacher, or public school student," the bill introduced by state Rep. Garry Smith, R-Simpsonville, states.

It mentions the Teacher of the Year competition as one of the specific areas in which charter school teachers should be treated the same as other teachers in the district.

"I know that this may seem to be insignificant to some," Greenville Tech Charter High Principal Fred Crawford said. "However, I believe when a school district decides to participate, it should not be allowed to exclude some public school teachers."

"It's unfortunate this (bill) may be the only path available for Greenville County School District charters."

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Charters Not Looked Upon Kindly...In Some Places

Charter Schools Seek to Improve Image with Code

Sunday, April 5th 2009 - by Jan Murphy

Charter school administrators know they are not viewed kindly by many educators, so they are taking steps to demonstrate their accountability to parents and legislators.

The Pennsylvania Coalition of Charter Schools is asking its members to adopt an ethics code that spells out the financial and academic expectations they have for themselves.

At a Capitol news conference on Tuesday, Lawrence Jones, president of the coalition and CEO of the Richard Allen Preparatory Charter School in Philadelphia, said the "vast majority of our schools" are living up to those standards, and most are exceeding them.

They include reconciling financial accounts monthly, banning the use of school credit cards for personal gain, disclosing employee salaries and setting academic goals for students.

Charter schools, since their inception in Pennsylvania in 1997, have drawn the ire of most public school officials, who see them as a drain on public education funds.

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No More Money For Local Charter School!

Local Charter School Upset with Governor's Budget
by Eileen Buckley

A local charter school is crying foul over the Governor's spending deal. The Charter School for Applied Technologies says this budget would be "unfair" to all charter schools.

School superintendent Efrain Martinez says under this deal, charter school funding would be frozen next year. But Martinez says school districts have managed to gain an increase, while charter schools loose out.

"The districts are going to get not cut, but the are going to get big increases. And yet we will be losing..."

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