Charter Schools
Charter schools are publicly funded schools that are run independently from the local school district. These schools are not required to follow many of the regulations imposed upon other public schools—such as hiring certified teachers. The charter school movement began to gain momentum in the early 1990s, when many states passed laws allowing for their creation. Since then, the number of charter schools and the number of students enrolled in charter schools has grown. According to the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), in the 2000–2001 school year, there were 2,000 public charter schools with 400,000 students enrolled. As of the 2021–2022 school year, that number had grown to nearly 7,800 public charter schools with about 3.7 million enrolled students.
To form a charter school, a contract (the "charter") must be developed, outlining the goals of the school, and the way its instruction will differ from that of other schools in the area. School charters also typically include a description of how the school’s performance goals will be assessed. If a charter school does not meet the goals outlined in the charter, the state department of education may revoke the charter and shut the school down.
Parents, activists, community leaders, or educators who are disillusioned with the quality of public education in their communities may create charter schools. Proponents of charter schools believe that this opportunity for residents of the community to form a school allows the community to participate in the educational process in ways that traditional schools do not.
Charter schools are frequently viewed as a compromise to the school voucher debate. The movement for vouchers to private schools using funds earmarked for public education is extremely controversial, and strongly opposed by most teachers’ unions, educators, and political liberals. Charter schools, however, are backed by many politicians on both sides of the political spectrum because they create alternatives to existing public schools without siphoning public school funds to private schools. Instead, they create a new type of public school, while still allowing students to obtain a type of education that could not be provided by the local school district. To date, 45 states and the District of Columbia have passed public charter school legislation.
Charter schools do have their detractors. Many educators believe that public school funds should stay within the existing public school systems. Furthermore, many people believe that state governments do not adequately monitor charter schools, allowing unsuccessful schools to operate when they are clearly out of compliance with their charters.
Research on charter schools has shown mixed results. Some studies indicate that students in charter schools perform better than students in regular public schools, while other studies indicate that their academic performance is worse. In truth, it is difficult to measure the overall effectiveness of charter schools because these schools utilize such a wide range of missions, philosophies, and pedagogical techniques. The majority of charter schools fail within 18 months, but there are also many that have been extremely successful. One highly thought of group of charter schools is KIPP (Knowledge is Power Program) Academy. These charter schools were created by Teach for America alumni and have been very successful in neighborhoods that are notorious for their low-performing public schools, and there are now 280 schools located throughout the U.S., with an enrollment of more than 175,000 early childhood, elementary, middle, and high school students.
The Small School Movement
In recent years, there has been a movement in big cities toward breaking up large schools into smaller learning communities. The thinking behind this is that students, particularly those in high-needs, low-income areas, perform better in small settings, where teachers and other adults can get to know each student personally. In most cases, these new, small schools are located within large buildings, where one large school has been broken up and replaced by several smaller schools, each with its own administration.
School systems with small schools often allow students to choose a school that fits their academic interests—particularly at the high school level. For example, students may choose a school that emphasizes journalism, the health professions, or the sciences, allowing them to focus on the academic areas they are most interested in, and encouraging them to think about their long-term career goals.
While the small school movement has had proponents for many years, it is only in recent years that large school systems have seriously begun to replace "mega-schools" with smaller learning communities. This is due largely to funding by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which has given many millions of dollars to school systems across the country for the purpose of creating small schools. At this time, it appears that the small school movement has been largely successful; students in smaller schools tend to perform better than those in enormous schools, and teachers in small schools frequently feel that they have more support from their administration and more of a say in the operations of the school.
Corporate Sponsorships of Academic Programs
In recent years, corporate sponsorships have played a significant role in American education. Often, corporate sponsorships fund specific academic programs. For example, the Detroit Free Press sponsors high school journalism programs in Detroit, and JP Morgan Chase sponsors a business mentoring program in New York City. Organizations such as these are willing to fund academic programs as a way of contributing to their communities and creating good public relations. And most educators welcome this type of corporate sponsorship.
Other corporate sponsorships are more controversial. Fast food companies have donated money to schools across the country in exchange for permission to place advertisements in school cafeterias. With growing concerns about childhood obesity and nutrition, many see this type of advertising as encouraging unhealthy behavior in a way that is inappropriate within the school environment.
Despite the controversies, a growing number of school systems across the country actively seek funding from corporate sponsors. These include both low-income schools that need funding for basic academic programs and schools in wealthy areas that hope to create opportunities for academic enrichment.
In addition to corporate sponsorship, there are many grants available for school programs. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation—the largest charitable trust in the world—spends a great deal of its resources on public education in America, and has become an extremely influential force. However, this is only one of many organizations dedicated to funding public education programs in the United States. Teachers and administrators who take the time to seek out grant money are often rewarded. This is particularly essential, in light of the continual budget cuts to public school funding across the country. A National Education Association article reported that as of the 2017-2018 school year, approximately 12 states had cut their general funding for elementary and secondary schools by 7 percent or more per student each year throughout the previous decade. In addition, the federal emergency relief funding that schools received during the pandemic to reopen schools and help students to continue their education expires in 2024, so funding from other sources will be needed.
Merit-Based Pay?
Many politicians believe that individual teachers should be held accountable for their students’ performance on standardized tests, with some people suggesting that teacher pay raises should be tied to standardized test scores. This merit-based system of granting teacher pay raises is widely resisted by teachers’ unions, which argue that merit-based raises would encourage the best teachers to work in schools that already have high test scores. As a counter to this argument, it has been suggested that a merit-based system might include bonuses or pay raises for teachers in hard-to-staff schools.
Keeping Students and Schools Safe
The rise of school shootings in recent years has caused great concern and anxiety for students and their families, teachers and other education workers, and the world at large. A Pew Research Center survey found that 57 percent of teenagers in the U.S. worry that a shooting can happen at their school, and 25 percent are "very worried" about this possibility. More than a third of parents are also worried about shootings in K-12 schools. The National Education Association (NEA) reported that more than 187,000 U.S. students have been exposed to school violence in school since the Columbine High School Shooting in Colorado in 1999.
There has been ongoing debate by educators, parents, and politicians about how best to keep schools and students safe, including arming teachers and school staff. According to the NEA article, "Educators across the U.S. stood up to reject the idea that more weapons would help save student lives." To date, only one state has a mandate that allows teachers and staff to carry a gun. Many educators believe that increasing mental health services for students, and also increasing services for families, would help.
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