RSS
Home
Are charter schools good for our children?
Print
Email
RSS
Subscribe
Charter schools have changed the face of education in Michigan and across the nation.
These schools are for students or families who would like a government funded option to the traditional public schools.
Are charter schools good or bad? There are many different opinions on this topic.
.jpg){kind=small}
Many of the 93,892 Michigan students who attend charter schools love the option, as do many educators.
“Charter schools are an experiment that has been phenomenally successful,” Tom Horne, the Arizona Department of Education Schools Superintendent, said in an article on Charter Schools Monthly.
Yet many powerful people in the public school systems have done everything they can do to stop charter schools from opening, and to convince others that they lack quality or accountability.
Of course charter schools have accountability. While many charter schools are great, some have been closed for not performing. Doesn’t the closing of non-performing schools demonstrate the accountability of the system?
Have you ever seen a public school closed for non-performance?
In fact, effective performance is the most important factor in the future success of the charter school movement.
“With financing growing tighter and state funds shrinking, access to money will increasingly hinge on charter schools’ ability to demonstrate quality in academic achievement, leadership, and management.” says JanKrygier of Charter School Monthly.
Effective charter schools in failing districts such as Detroit offer options and hope for many children.
A few years ago, retired suburban philanthropist Bob Thompson offered $200 million to build 15 charter high schools in Detroit. These schools would guarantee to graduate 90 percent of their students.
Yet the community turned Thompson down, as they felt that he was “a white meddler out to steal their children,” according to Nolan Finley of the Detroit News.
“They were joined in their absurdity by Gov. Jennifer Granholm and Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, who threw their lot in with the teacher union.”
A few years later, Detroit is officially the worst big city school district in the nation, and its finances will be taken over by the state of Michigan. Yet the governor and Democratic lawmakers are still refusing to life the cap on charter schools, and the state House just passed a law protecting DPS from competition.
Even a group of Detroit teachers are pleading for the chance to remake a school under the successful Green Dot model.
Thompson hasn’t given up.
He had already opened University Prep Academy, and he's working on a math and science school as well as an art school.
The Henry Ford Academy: School for Creative Studies stands to become a model for education as an engine of urban economic development and minority outreach.
This combination middle school and high school “gives hope for parents desperate to find alternatives instead of despair over the broken Detroit Public Schools,” according to Daniel Howes of the Detroit News.
Thompson told Howe in an interview: "The biggest challenge I can think of is inner city kids in Detroit and an education for those kids. We think we're making a difference, a measurable difference, and to me that's very important."
For more information, see: Detroit blew chance for school rescue and New school gives hope for the future
The Henry Ford Academy: School for Creative Studies
The Henry Ford Academy: School for Creative Studies
Note: if you would like to receive regular updates on what’s happening in Michigan education, please click on the Subscribe icon below to sign up for once-a-day spam-free emails.
Related Articles:
Comments
The new Michigan law which raises the dropout age to 18 will cost an estimated $230 million annually. In addition, the new dropout laws would …
Hundreds of low-income children in Washington, D.C. have a major request this holiday season: that the grinches on Capitol Hill decide not to kill the …
- Barack Obama's Letter to His Daughters Emphasizes Education
- Have Teachers' Unions Been Betrayed by Obama?
- How Will Obama's Stimulus Plan Affect College Students?
- Obama Stimulus Plan: $100 Billion Education Dollars
- Text of Obama's Education Speech Released
- What Should Obama Tell Us About Childhood Obesity and Health Care?
- Are Charter Schools Good for Our Children?
- Charter School Leaders and Homeschoolers Work Together as More Students Choose These Options
- Charter School List Grows in Metro Detroit Area
- Charter School Pays College Costs for Graduates Who Agree to Help City
- Charter Schools Enroll 1.4 Million Nationwide While Demand Rises
- Charter Schools Key to School Reform
- Detroit Billionaire Works With New Mayor Bing to Open Charter School
- Sharpton, Gingrich Join to Challenge Educational Establishment, Promote Charter Schools
- ACT Versus SAT: Which College Exam Should You Take?
- Buying Textbooks Online: Save Money
- Choosing a College
- College Students Can Get $2500 Tax Credit Under Stimulus Plan
- Finding Scholarships
- How Should Parents Communicate With Their College Students?
- Renting Calculators to Save Money
- Renting College Textbooks
- Students Pay No Tuition But Work for Campus Businesses at College of the Ozarks
- Watching Your Teen Pack for Freshman Year of College
- Why Do So Many College Students Drop Out?
- Divorce and Homeschooling
- Homeschoolers are Successful in College
- Homeschoolers Score Higher Than 86% of Peers
- Homeschooling Numbers Double in a Decade
- Homeschool Statistics and Laws
- Homeschooling Moms Sing Hilarious Christmas Satire of The 14 Days of Homeschool
- Top 10 Reasons to Criminalize Home Schooling
- Unschooling is Homeschooling that Fits Many Familes
- Best-selling author Vince Flynn feels his dyslexia is a gift
- Bill Cosby Speaks Bluntly About Black People and Education
- Creating a Literate Nation
- Michael Oher, Sean Tuohy: Real Heroes of the Blind Side are Keynote Speakers at Literacy Conference
- Oprah Winfrey Film Highlights National Family Literacy Month
- Do Public School Really Need More Money?
- Lawsuit Against No Child Left Behind Dismissed
- Major Educational Reforms Passed in Michigan in Rare Saturday Session
- Should Inmates Earn Diplomas in Prison?
- Should Parents Receive Tax Rebates for Private School Tuition?
- States Turn Back on Race to the Top Funds Due to Educator Concerns
- THE WAR ON KIDS Movie Director Thinks Public Schools Resemble Prisons
- Why is the US Public School System Struggling?
- ACORN Receives Millions From Teachers' Unions
- Retired Educator Bravely Gives Opinion on Teacher Unions
- Should School District Union Negotiations be Public?
- Should Schools Implement Merit Pay for Teachers?
- Should Teachers Strike Illegally?
- Should Teachers' Union Dues Pay for Politics?
- Survey Says Teacher Satisfaction Has Risen
- Teachers and Homeschools can Buy and Sell Used Supplies on New Website
- Teachers' Union Discourages Members from Volunteering at School
- Teachers' Unions Stuggle During Recession
- Will Teachers Lose Their Union-Owned Health Insurance?
- Do You Monitor Your Teens' Internet Activity?
- High School Students Taking More Online Classes
- Internet Monitoring Tools Helpful to Students, Parents
- Should Schools Monitor Student Internet Activity?
- Teaching Your Kids About Money Online
- Teenagers are Using More Pot and Pills but Fewer Cigarettes and Less Alcohol
- 26.8% of Students in Detroit Graduate
- 29 Detroit Schools Will Close; 40 Failing Schools Will Restructure
- Bill Cosby to Help Robert Bobb Promot Desperate Detroit Schools
- Detroit Public Schools Request Disaster Funding from US Education Department
- Millions of Stimulus Dollars to Pay for Massive Academic Overhaul of Detroit Schools
- Parents Want Teachers and Administrators Jailed Due to Failures of Detroit Public Schools
- Power Control at Issue as Detroit School Board Sues State Manager
- Reading Revolution Program for Desperate Detroit Public Schools Recruits 800+ Volunteer Tutors
- Teachers Will Loan Money to District Under New Contract Approved by Detroit Federation of Teachers
- Will Detroit Public Schools Declare Bankruptcy?
