Charter Schools

As we have found out from class discussion, many of us are unfamiliar with charter schools. Dr. Glassman found it strange that many of us are going to be future educators, but yet we didn't know what a charter school was until he told us. I was one who had heard of charter schools, but didn't really know what they were because I came from a very small town in the countryside of Ohio where charter schools don't exist. There are absolutely no charter schools in my county. (I even looked it up to be sure!) Every school is public except for the one or two private catholic schools. My opinion of charter schools were that they are only in the city and they are basically like prep schools for rich snobby kids. I currently live in Columbus, but yet I am not very knowledgeable with the Columbus Schools system.

After class discussion on Monday and watching the video regarding the charter school phenomenon in New Orleans, I decided to look more into charter schools in Ohio because it hits closer to home. I found this article that discusses how state legislators have allowed charter schools in Ohio's two largest cities, Columbus and Cleveland to receive local tax dollars. If the levy gets passed this fall in Columbus some of the tax dollars will go to charter schools. Mayor Michael Coleman is trying to improve the educational system in this city so it says. The article goes on to say that the tax money will not just go to any charter school. Those charter schools have to meet certain standards and the city of Columbus is forming a group to determine those standards. Council President Andrew Ginther said “We don’t want to rush this and come up with standards that don’t reflect our values,” he said. “ And we have no desire to partner with mediocre or low-performing charter schools.” This goes back to that video where the elementary school in the Bronx looked effective from looking inside the classroom, but the test results were terrible. Who are these people that are going to come up with the standards....politicians, people with actual experience in the education field? I think it is funny to note that Ginther also comments how he doesn't want to rush coming up with the standards in six weeks because the election is coming up. Of course the election is more important than determining where people's money is going to go. The article goes on to talk a little about what is going on in Cleveland. The link that that article is http://stateimpact.npr.org/ohio/2013/09/17/two-stories-about-big-city-mayors-trying-to-set-rules-for-charter-schools/

I could go on and on, but my general thought is why would we give charter schools who are privately owned tax payer's dollars. It was said in class that public schools perform about the same as charter schools any way. Maybe I am biased because again I am from a small town and there are no charter schools. You go to the school whose district you live in. If you don't like that school then you open enroll to a nearby school. Most times though, one stays in that school from kindergarten through twelfth grade. I loved my public school because I knew everyone and we all treated one another like family. Again I am not familiar with city schools and what has happened in Columbus through the years so I would love to hear someone's opinion who grew up in Columbus regarding this topic.