Are charter schools being held accountable for their treatment of children?

February 24, 5:41 AMNY Education ExaminerLorri Giovinco-Harte

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The concept of charter schools is gaining popularity in the public arena.  For parents, they provide an alternative to public schools which may not be living up to their expectations.

Charter schools are also gaining in popularity among many teachers who see working in a charter school as an opportunity to be free from the public school environments which often prevent them from truly helping children. 

Indeed, there are many policies and procedures which one faces when working within the public school system which seem to impede teachers from doing their job - social promotion, pressure to graduate children who have not achieved skills, and disciplinary procedures which allow a handful of unruly students to disrupt the learning of the majority.

This is not to say that charter schools do not fall under state and federal laws surrounding the treatment of children, but they do seem to have much more freedom when it comes to the discipline of disruptive children - and some might say that they have a bit too much freedom in this area.

Caroline Grannan is an Examiner in San Francisco who has worked for several years as a journalist covering educational issues.  She has been writing some very thought provoking pieces about issues that have been surfacing in some charter schools, which are rather frightening, to say the least.  In particular, she has been reporting on some allegedly horrific treatment of children within a California KIPP (Knowledge Is Power Program) School. 

Most of interest about Caroline's posts is the fact that much of this information is not receiving the publicity that it should be.  One would think that a principal who has been accused of a stream of degradations against children, such as forcing a child to "bark like a dog",  would be the subject of a media outcry, and yet this hasn't seemed to be the case.

There are some who would assert that this has a great deal to do with the private donors who contribute money to the organization and who appear to have a great deal of wealth and political connection.

I will let you decide why such horrific allegations are not being given more attention and whether or not they would be tolerated in a public school setting.

Click here to read more from Caroline Grannan.