Introduction
Charter schools are a certain type of public school that operates under a charter which is a contract between an authorizing agency and the overall school. The charter gives the school the opportunity to achieve their educational objectives with an operational autonomy. An example of this autonomy might be that the school can have authority over important decisions pertaining to the budget, personnel and curriculum. As a provision of the agreement for the autonomy, a charter school might get shut down if it fails to meet the performance reviews (Berends, 2015). These sorts of schools are not part of the entire state district and do not have any zoning limitations. Therefore, the student and the parent can attend the school based on their own personal preferences, and not through a certain assignment by the student’s school district.
Since a charter school is not a member of the district like the rest of the public schools, it is a known fact that their funding will be set up differently by receiving public dollars, and not able to charge the student, or their parents any tuition. Charter schools are also not exempt from the federal laws which cover discrimination, equal rights and disability, or handicap access. The primary focus for the charter school is the overall student’s academic achievement with a unique funding process that differs from regular public schools.
History
Advantages of Charter Schools
Although Charter schools have a significant amount of support from both state and federal perspectives, there are advantages and disadvantages of these types of schools. The first advantage is that they offer flexible options for families and their students. In the communities that offer public schools, some parents may not want to allow their son or daughter to attend the public school because it may not fit their educational needs, or it might be too crowded, or both. The second advantage of a charter school is that it encourages innovation. Many of the latest inventions and developments that occur from students occur at Charter schools. One reason for this is that they are not tied down by the bureaucracy and union rules. Therefore, the students who are a part of the charter school will have longer school weeks and less vacation time, unlike the traditional public school student. While the third advantage is that the charter school encourages competition, and it improves how the instructor would teach their lesson plans.
Disadvantage of a Charter School
The first disadvantage of a charter school is the fiscal inefficiency. Many schools receive their funding based on their enrollment and whenever a school decides to go charter, then they face the huge risk of losing their funding for the traditional programs that are required for school aged students in kindergarten all the way to the twelfth grade. School consolidation must be implemented to promote the fiscal efficiency and support the expansion of charter schools while reducing the funding as much as necessary. The second disadvantage is that a charter school really does not have an open enrollment like they may lead many parents to believe. Instead, charter schools want to target only certain kinds of model students. For instance, when the enrollment is full, many families become on their waiting list and become chosen based on a lottery system. The school administrative would then proceed to choose the students with the highest GPA, or choose a student with a higher income rather than a student with a lower socioeconomic background. The third disadvantage is that they do not spend a lot of their funding inside of the classrooms because they are mainly supported by for-profit companies. These companies, in particular spend half of their budget on the academic instruction compared to traditional public school systems. This could be neglectful, in a sense to the student if the educational needs are not fully met in the classroom because this is where most the learning activities occur. In conclusion, charter schools exist to develop the talents of school aged students and they should be accessible to all students, regardless of their education level, or their parents income level.
References
Berends, M. (2015). Annualreviews.org. Retrieved 5 January 2017, from http://www.annualreviews.org/doi/pdf/10.1146/annurev-soc-073014-112340
