making sense of the charter school experiment?

Far too often, we essentialize to the point of not seeing the whole picture. This is clearly the case with regard to charter schools. Having worked at one in the very early years, I understand both the potential and the pitfalls. With age and experience (I started at the charter after only two years teaching) I have come to see that long term change (that is to say, systemic change) can only come through continual experimentation coupled with true analysis and course correction. All that to say that no one reform will ever FIX the public school system. Moreover to believe that there is such a thing as public education that can be attacked in one way is to misunderstand the term.

Public education is a term, like CANCER, that is purposely vague yet with an overarching theme that resonates with everyone. Just because three people have cancer doesn't mean they will all get the same treatment. First, you would figure out what kind of cancer it was. Then you would prescribe a treatment. More importantly, then you would monitor the treatment to see if it was working ... then tweak it so that you could CURE the cancer.

Here's an excerpt from the article that sent me on this particular rant:

As schools improve and options increase, parents who now feel that they have no choice but expensive private schools might return to the district, whether in charters or regular public schools. Either way, the district would get more money to help with administrative costs. Families would get both the innovation of charters and the stability of a public school system.

That last point is an important one, because, for all their charms, charters are not the answer to all that ails education. Charter schools can demand a certain level of student behavior and parent involvement; the parents drawn to them are already fairly savvy and involved. That combination alone would tend to result in higher test scores. Conventional public schools, by contrast,have to take everyone. Should a charter fail, decide to close or "encourage" its low-achieving students to leave, who picks up the pieces without a public system?