Are Charter Schools Better?

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Some people think that charters schools are better because classes are smaller and students choose to go to them. But the research is mixed on whether or not charters get better academic results. What do you think? What has been your experience?

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Parent Replies to "Are Charter Schools Better?"

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I think you are seeing here how charter and magnet schools are better. When there are problems parents are not at the whim of the school system to make changes. This used to be the way all public schools worked and the national increase in these schools over the last 5 years is what I see as an attempt from parents to take back public school control. The public school system often has trouble believing that we know what is best for our children. Charter schools work with families to make the best education possible.
When charter schools fail, it is most likely because the administration does not understand the concept of the mission statement and falls back to traditional public school concepts. Charter schools are not easy, they take advanced thinking.

Often times the administration comes from a traditional public school upbringing and are not visionary enough to make a charter school work. It takes a strong P.T.O. and visionary school administrators to make the schools truly work.

This school year, something similar was initiated. The charter school added an xtra $5 to the cost of uniform tops to offset loss of funding.

When we lost funding for associates the PTO paid their salarys to keep them on. That's what successful parent -teacher communication can do.

I live in Pembroke Pines, FL. and my kids both attend PPCES. I absolutely love this school system. They have maintained A grades for the last couple of years throughout the entire system (elementary to high school level). I have been impressed by the level of interaction between parent and administration. They make it easy to be involved in your school and show it. The only concerns is usually financial lately as with the public schools, due to the cut in Education budget. We as parents were worried about the possibility of loosing associates in the classrooms. So far we are weathering the storm and hopefully will continue to succeed with less funding than most public schools have as usual.

Definatel, checking out the experience of the administrative body is a good idea. The principal at our charter retired after 26 years. Needless to say, she was the school. After that the school had 3 principals in rapid succession. The school became more of the party line. The principals had experience in traditional public schools and could not grasp the forward thinking parent involved concept and the school floundered because of this. It helps to have adminstration experienced in magnet or charter schools or even private school experience, since most charter schools are more like private schools than public. A private school adminstrator is muched more experienced at working with parents and following through on the concerns of parents and students since their bottom line depends on that skill.

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