On Nov 10, 2009, at 12:11 PM, Jordan Hayes wrote:
> Doug writes:
>
>> They don't work.
>
> I think that's a stretch.
>
>> There are some good ones, but there are also some good
>> public schools.
>
> But when a new charter is started, it's not because they want to
> replace the "good" public school; it's that the "good" public school
> isn't big enough. They want to replace a random *bad* public school
> so that there are (nominally) two good schools where there once was
> only one.
That's not the only reason. Charter schools are often founded by people with an ideological mission, or by local empire-builders and interest groups.
<http://credo.stanford.edu/reports/MULTIPLE_CHOICE_EXECUTIVE%20SUMMARY.pdf
>
"And yet, this study reveals in unmistakable terms that, in the aggregate, charter students are not faring as well as their TPS [traditional public school] counterparts. Further, tremendous variation in academic quality among charters is the norm, not the exception. The problem of quality is the most pressing issue that charter schools and their supporters face."