Who is most important when it comes to educating kids?
There is general agreement that first, of course, is the teacher in the classroom. And next are the parents.
That is why all the opposition to the growing charter school movement in the U.S. should be rolled up and stuffed into a proverbial fanny pack.
Sure, you can find a study claiming that the education provided by charters is no better — or even worse — than traditional schools.
But youngsters attend charters because mom and dad want them there. And those decisions usually come with big-time sacrifice.
I live near a large charter. When the school day begins and ends, the traffic around here resembles westbound Interstate 70 on a Saturday morning. The reason: School buses don’t serve most charters since enrollees come from all over parts of a school district.
Thus, most of the kids live a good distance from the school and have to be dropped off and picked up each day by a parent or relative. It’s not likely that these people regard public education as a glorified babysitting service.
Furthermore, if charters are bad, why do most have a waiting list?
Although reform of public schools has been a slow and tedious task, the charter movement has been a catalyst for change. Many school boards remain opposed, but primarily because of pressure from teacher unions. Public demand for better schools — especially in urban areas — has steadily overcome the status quo crowd.
According to the latest figures compiled by the National Alliance for Charter Schools, 5 percent of all students in the U.S. are enrolled in one.
In New Orleans, that number is 91 percent, after officials there junked the old system and started over after Hurricane Katrina.
Charter enrollment is 55 percent in Detroit; 44 percent in Washington, D.C.; 37 percent in Kansas City, Mo.; and 30 percent in Indianapolis.
There is a proposal now before the school board in Los Angeles to have about half of the district’s 700,000 youths enrolled in charters — up from the current 16 percent.
Liberal billionaire Eli Broad is putting up $490 million to make it happen.
This has the California Federation of Teachers in a high state of panic. “There is not a good system in place to monitor them,” it claims. But where is the “good system” for your local neighborhood school?
Colorado laws create a favorable climate for charters; we rank eighth highest in the total number of students served by them. At last count, there were 197 such schools with 93,000 pupils.
A survey by Colorado’s Department of Education showed that charters generally outperform their counterparts. They have a lot of autonomy to set curriculum and policies. Teachers and administrators in charters earn less than in regular schools and the demographics of enrollees is about the same.
In other words, charters have their share of minorities and the underprivileged. That shoots down another argument that charters are only for an elitist segment of the population.
For those who want to eliminate charters, here’s how: Make every traditional school so good there is no need for competition.
Dick Hilker (dhilker529@ ) is a retired suburban area newspaper editor and columnist.
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