I live in a state with a pretty good definition of charter schools similar to what you describe. It also offered union teachers higher starting wages. My kids went to one. Even with every other great thing going for it, it was still a negative for the local public schools (and an unfair comparison). Why?
- There was a bias towards higher-performing kids due to self-selection. Parents who wanted their kids to have smaller class sizes and a better education were more likely to apply and get their kids into the charter school, creating an automatic bias towards families who were invested in education.
- The one thing they couldn’t get around was the need for volunteer hours to cover the shortfall in the kind of centralized services the school district specializes in. Parents were required to either put in a minimum number of volunteer hours or $$ to cover the difference. That is not something that every family can afford.
It was absolutely a great thing for my kids. I also see, in no uncertain terms, that it was not the best thing for the school system.
