As a former fan of charters, I would encourage others to learn more about charter schools before one endorses them. We had one formed here in a school slated to be closed. First, they are not held to the same testing/performance standards as public schools. Also, because of budget constraints, they pay less. The teaching/admin staff becomes a rotating door, the best find better jobs, the bad stay. After about four years, concerned parents pulled their kids, now they have mostly dregs. Also, school choice rules allow students from surrounding districts to transfer in. The kids who are discipline problems or who have been expelled and their parents are paying tuition at a reduced rate.
Yes, this cesspool sucks money from the public schools that outperform it. Is that a good thing?
If yours doesnt work, shut it down or fix. But dont let a schitty school in your town speak for charter schools everywhere. I'm really tired of someone in PA (or elsewhere) with an experience, thinking that said experience will be the same everywhere else.
That's been the point of most of the discussion here- allow options in different parts of the country, keep the decisions local, and dont GAF what someone from somewhere else thinks.
