Charter schools don’t top the charts

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Charter schools don’t top the charts
Education examiner Donna Gundle-Kreig writes that charter schools are supported by 77 percent of Michigan voters. While the poll Gundle-Kreig cites is likely accurate, it is also likely that many of Michigan’s voters don’t fully understand charter schools.

A charter school is a publicly-funded school – receiving money from state and local governments just like other public schools – that is freed from many of the rules, regulations and statutes that apply to other public schools. Instead, the charter school is held to some kind of accountability for results as set forth in its charter; a contract of sorts with the agency granting the charter.

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As charter schools have become more popular and more widespread, more data is available on the successes and problems that result. Recent studies reported in the New York Times, including a comprehensive study by researchers at Stanford University, find that fewer than 20% of charter schools offered a better education than comparable local schools, about half offered an equivalent education, and more than one-third were “significantly worse.”

Certainly there are some charter schools that are successful. What appears to make the difference is the rigor of authorities that grant charters. Oversight is strong in New York, a state known for better outcomes. Ohio, Arizona, and Texas have minimal accountability, and studies show those states have among the poorest-performing charter schools overall.

James Merriman, chief executive of the New York City Charter School Center, points out that school quality does not, in fact, rise because of marketplace accountability. “It turns out”, Merriman says, “you need government accreditation to drive quality, and the human capital to make schools go. The hard lesson is, it is so dependent on human capital.”

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In the past five years, the U.S. Department of Education’s Inspector General’s office has opened more than 40 criminal investigations of charter schools nationwide. These have resulted in convictions for offenses ranging from embezzlement and inflating enrollment to obtain more funding to changing grades and creating companies to divert taxpayer dollars from schools.

http://www.examiner.com/x-29491-Topeka-K12-Examiner~y2010m5d10-Charter-schools-dont-top-the-charts

So now we're called "human capital?" That's actually dehumanizing.