Feb
2
Blog Post #2: Charter Schools and Inequality
February 2, 2015 | Leave a Comment
I have heard of charter schools but didn’t really know what they were. I had to Google search charter schools to find out that they’re similar to public schools and private schools but are independently ran. However, I do know that NYC and America’s education system isn’t up to par as the rest of the world’s education system. It was interesting to read about the controversy between tradition public schools and charter schools. There are always two sides to every story.
This was the first time I heard about the negative effects that charter schools have created. The inequality seems to lie in traditional public schools not having enough resources or a balanced demographic of kids compared to charter schools. Charter schools are getting money from both private donors and the public system. According to Trymaine Lee’s article, they get more money for resources while also being co-located which means spending less money on constructing a new building. In addition, it is argued that they recruit only the brightest students, rejecting the ones with special needs or low performances. This means leaving students have special needs and students who are behind their comprehension levels in to public schools.
Charter schools are supposed to be random/lottery, but if only the top students enroll in charter schools, there won’t be any academic diversity in the other schools. This makes it easier for charter schools reach its goal and threshold of academic success to continue as a school. This is essentially cheating the system. However, it was shocking to read Pedro Noguera’s article who said
only 29 percent of charter schools outperformed public schools with similar students in math, while 31 percent performed worse. Most charter schools, in fact, obtained results that were no better than traditional public schools.
If these statistics are real, then charter schools are not actually doing its job. Compared to the other articles by McCarron and Mignogno, they highlight the positive effects of charter schools. It seems like they implode stricter rules and policies such as longer class days, Saturday school and double periods. Some parents may like the strict discipline and longer school hours, but charter schools need more regulation for the consequences forced upon public schools.
There needs to be ways for charter schools to report with accuracy what and how their kids are doing. In addition, charter schools should be required to disclose how much funds are raised and where is it is used. This separated and unequal education should not progress anymore. There needs to be a leveled playing field with rules and regulations for both traditional and charter schools.
The question of specialized high schools and the SHSAT is very similar to this controversy. I wonder what will happen to these schools that want innovation and more academic success but are mostly catered to a certain demographics.
-JanYing He
