My project on Charter Schools

1. Alyssa Montgomery

2. What is a charter school exactly? Where did
the idea come from?
Are charter schools necessary?
Do they provide any benefits or reforms
beyond what standard public schools
provide?
Can these benefits be worked into standard
schools without the addition of charter
schools?
Are charter schools fair?

3. Courtesy of
Education Evolving’s “Origins of Chartering
Timeline”

4. Written in the early 1970s, this paper is
thought to be the origin point for the charter
school philosophy.
Budde suggested that a small amount of
teachers should be given “charters” to explore
new approaches to education.
His intent was to develop a system to restrict
school districts.
Ray Budde's "Education by Charter"

5. In 1974, Budde presented “Education by
Charter” to the Society for General Systems
Research
The paper received little response.
However, two other reports, A Nation at
Risk(1983) and A Nation Prepared (1988)
would pave the way for acknowledgement of
Budde’s ideas.

6. Shanker was the president of The American
Federation of Teachers.
He proposed that there should be
autonomous schools that were led by
teachers.
Using Budde’s theories, he called his schools
“Charter Schools” thus coining the phrase.

7. Passed in 1991, provided for the creation of
charter schools in Minnesota with a cap on the
number of schools and districts as sole
authorizers.
Joe Nathan, head of the Center for School
Change, immediately begins seeking out teachers
and others in order to take advantage of the new
legislation.
The first charter schools begin in Minnesota,
other states follow soon after.
Charter Schools become a hot topic for
presidential candidates and dinner conversation.

8. According to Uncommon Schools, “A charter
school is an independently run public school
granted greater flexibility in its operations, in
return for greater accountability for
performance. The ‘charter’ establishing each
school is a performance contract detailing the
school's mission, program, students served,
performance goals, and methods of
assessment.”

9. From the NCSL Issues and Research
as quoted in Genma Holmes’ article,
“The Pros and Cons of Charter
Schools”

10. Charter Schools provide families with choices.
This means parents will be able to be more
involved in choosing what education their
child receives.
With less regulation, charter schools can
provide an experimentation ground for
reform.
With added competition from charter schools,
public schools will be forced to up their own
performance to keep enrollment.

11. Charter schools are held accountable by their
charters. If they do not perform, their
charters are not renewed.
Charter schools will lead to an overall reform
of the public school system.

12. Due to their size, charter schools will only
offer choices for a small amount of families.
This raises questions about the fairness and
equality of charter schools.
There are already many reform methods that
have proven useful but have not been
implemented in standard public schools.
Charter schools have an unfair advantage
compared to standard public schools due to
their lack of regulation.

13. Charter schools are too small to effectively
influence the public school sphere.
Charter schools are not held appropriately
accountable due to lack of regulation.

14. From Concordia Online Education’s
“Pros and Cons of Teaching at a Charter School”

15. Teachers are given an
empowering environment
through the family-like
atmosphere.
“At-will” employment
allows teachers to resign
without penalty. This
may attract young
teachers.
Charter schools have a
high demand for
teachers as they continue
to expand. This provides
job opportunities for
young teachers.
The amount of teacher
input in charter schools
may lead to overworked
teachers.
Teachers at charter
schools receive a smaller
paycheck than their
standard school
counterparts along with
weaker benefits
packages.
Management varies
greatly from school to
school which can lead to
issues.

16. When I started this project, I had a very romantic
notion of charter schools. In my mind, what
could be better than a school run mostly by
teachers? However, after learning more about
charter schools, I feel that they possess massive
flaws that must be solved. I am not sure that
these issues can be fixed and I believe we should
stick to reforming standard public schools rather
than trying to save charter schools. On the
following slide, I will include some of the reading
that brought me to this conclusion.

17. Education Commission of the States: Charter
Schools
Focus on the Family: Public Charter Schools
NPR: What Should Parents Know About
Charter Schools?
Charter Schools Versus Public Schools