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Charter schools key to school reform
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Charter schools are becoming more accepted and popular, according to a number of stories and studies that have recently been published.
"The stars are aligned for good things to happen for the charter school movement in America,” Nelson Smith, president of the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, recently told other charter school leaders.
"We have a moment in front of us like none other."
The following signs are clear that charter schools are popular, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: .jpg)
• President Barack Obama and Secretary of Education Arne Duncan have gone to lengths to make it clear that they support charter schools and want to see more of them (provided they offer quality).
• The number of schools continues to grow - about 4,600 nationwide. More than 1.4 million students are enrolled in charters in 40 states and the District of Columbia this year.
• Education officials both in the Obama administration and in Congress say they want charter schools to get a cut of the action as billions of dollars of federal economic stimulus money is dispersed over the next two years.
Due to this political support as well as parental demand, districts across the state are exploring the expansion of charters.
The new Superintendent of the New Orleans Recovery district, Paul Vallas, wants to ‘charterize’ the entire district, according to the Charter School Examiner in one of her informative stories: New Orleans to be all Charter School District?
Even teachers’ unions such as the Detroit Federation of Teachers are realizing that charters schools aren’t going away. This union has decided to organize their own charter schools.
“The DFT does not support charter schools and/or the expansion of charter schools!” explained President Keith Johnson in a Detroit Federation of Teachers newsletter.
“However we can no longer afford to keep our heads buried in the sand hoping to look up one day and find that they have all gone away.”
Johnson also said that “organizing charters will strengthen our power and influence as a union.”
If the unions start charter schools, it will be interesting to see if parents stay with the movement. Many parents like charter schools because of the absence of adversarial and opposing forces which are often complicated by the union.
Or, just maybe the unions are the ones that can set up schools that do not have these constant battles built into the system.
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