The Epidemic of Charter Schools: A Saga, the Danger of School Choice

Set of beads which read “EDUCATION” in 
the foreground with stacks of books in a 
classroom in the background, blurred.

As easy as it is to dismiss charter schools in their entirety, it is valuable to mention that they come from humble, and even wholesome, beginnings. In the 90s charter schools were touted as the next revolutionary idea to “finally fix public education.” Although their method of fixing was never quite sensible, an attempt was made. Invented to serve as labs and think-tanks for how education can be renovated for maximum student success, charter schools—and the discourse surrounding them—have become so much more. Much of the treacherous discourse around charter schools is also tied up with the issues of school choice. The ability for parents to chose which public institution their child attends rather than being required to attend the defaulted school in their district. School choice by its own nature is not evil; every student should have access to quality education. However, the answer to students lacking quality education is not to just abandon low-quality schools. Additionally, in today’s politically and socially volatile climate, many school choice supporters link their desire to change schools to the racial and socio-economic demographic of their current public school. Again, desiring to change schools because your school does not adequately support students from diverse racial and socio-economic backgrounds is really only putting a bandaid on a ever-persisting gun shot wound in the public school system’s gut. Of course, it would be a different story if charter schools had found a way to benefit all students and reconstruct under-performing public schools. But they didn’t, charter schools hardly perform better than public schools and are often on-par or below their average performance levels. 

I think what it all comes down to is autonomy. An interesting aspect, and one of the really great ideas, of charter schools is that they have almost complete autonomy in how they dictate funding, schedules, curriculum, and so much more. The autonomy charter schools have helps and hurts them considering they can be run by people with little to no experience and often go unchecked. I think that implementing a kind of autonomy within the existing public school system could be almost entirely beneficial. With the current foundations of public schools in place, I think that their are people within these schools that are more qualified, more invested in these schools and their students’ success, and more understanding of the beings at play than many of the individuals and corporations that dictate the policies of public education. This gives people with a vested interest the ability to strengthen and promote schools that parents and politicians would rather abandon. There is much hope to be had for the future of both public schools and charter schools so long as we hold them at the standard intended: that they promote and improve the education provided for all students.