Word: chartering
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With a strict new discipline code, University Middle School is off to a better start this fall. Still, critics of charter schools are worried that there is insufficient oversight, and experience will probably prove them right. There is, however, one important check on the performance of these new schools: most states grant charters for a maximum of five years. If the school fails to measure up, the charter will not be renewed...
...most states charter laws are quite weak; they actually make it difficult to create a charter school. There are no start-up funds, no buildings provided, no guarantee of support services from the school district. Local unions often add to the obstacles, making it tough to recruit teachers. Though state education officials recognize the problems, coming up with seed money for charters is not easy, given the political opposition. A tiny bit of help may come from the Federal Government: a $6 million development fund for charter schools is included in the $11 billion school-reauthorization bill signed last week...
Meanwhile the experience of Clementina Duron in Oakland, California, is all too typical. When Duron, a public-school principal, joined with a group of Latino parents to form a charter middle school in the low-income barrio of Jingletown, they faced open hostility from the district school board and union. The district refused to allow the proposed school to participate in its self-insurance program, which would have cost only $400. Instead, Duron had to pay $10,000 for private liability insurance. Nor was the district willing to share its legal services or payroll department. The attitude, says Duron...
...Even if charter schools do succeed individually, the bigger question is, Will they make a difference to American education at large? Charter proponents argue that their schools are laboratories for change, places that will shine as examples and inspirations to the rest of the school system...
Some critics go so far as to say that charter schools will actually hurt public-school systems by drawing away talent and money; they benefit the few at the expense of the many. "If state mandates are really such an impediment to the 1.6 million public-school students in Michigan, then why not remove them for all of us?" asks M.E.A. president Julius Maddox. Such concerns temper the general enthusiasm for charter schools expressed by U.S. Secretary of Education Richard Riley, who as a Democrat is closely attentive to the union view: "We don't want to take our attention...