Charter Schools are NOT the answer

Why do charter schools exist?

Why would a school district issue a charter to an outside corporation, since a more successful model, a public-private initiative, if you will, would make fully known what is passing knowledge to a weary and disillusioned public:

Public schools suck; they do not teach our kids, they do not prepare them for real life, they do not even keep kids safe.

Yet charter schools, free of the sclerotic red tape that binds up schools and frustrates innovation, have yielded mixed results, at best.

True, they are smaller communities. True, they provide more attention, care, and safety. True, they are allowed to expel unruly students who harass students and impede learning.

Sadly, because they are still off-shoots of state power, they still must shoulder immense regulatory burdens. Because they exist at the good pleasure of an entrenched school district, their charter can be revoked in case of irregularities, misconduct, fraud, or the worse case scenario: failure to deliver higher test scores.

After all the reforming efforts that drive committed community partners to improve public education, leaders still must contend with the dreaded, useless, and misleading standardized tests. The charter school exists in order that students in a school district will perform better on standardized tests.

A number of teachers who have fled the traditional public schools to charters have found themselves facing even greater pressure to produce high-quality students who demonstrate high aptitude in multiple choice exams.

The fundamental goal of state-run schools has not changed, though the outside has presented an appearance of stunning reform. Now, teachers in charter schools are pressed even more to teacher to the test, not to the student.

The sad irony is that now even the students are hoodwinked into thinking highly of themselves in these charter communities. Because high scores is a wider effort, made easier by required parental involvement, small class sizes, fewer students, and less bureaucracy, everyone in an errant "esprit de corps" is dedicated to outmatching other schools with better test scores.

But life is not a standardized test! Students will not face a world with decisions that simply require them to choose the best out of four or five options. Besides the intellectual rationing that students endure, no longer reading texts for imaginative and metaphysical enlightenment, they become skilled at drill and kill fill in the blank inquiries, none of which excite the mind for rigorous coursework or employment, or even personal fulfillment.

Charter Schools are not the answer to the educational crisis in this country. Like washing a pig once a week, or putting lipstick on a burn victim, charter schools create a veneer of reform and renovation, yet the same broken, beaten, and abominable power structure remains in place.

Students are getting a better "schooling" in charters, following orders, filling out needless papers and completing inane projects, but they are not receiving a true, enlightening, inspiring education.