Why do they use the word "charter" in charter schools? Would 'corporate schools' scare people too

[applegrove]

much?

[mzteris]

1. because over 80% are NOT "corporate"

but locally chartered - operated, manned, managed, established.

The "corporate ones" are bad - but they ARE the minority.

Don't get rid of charter public schools, make sure the laws in your state support the locally established ones - you know by local teachers, parents, citizens - who want children in their community to have options not made available by the local traditional public school system.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

4. It is unfortunate that "good" charters get tarred with the same brush as "corporate" charters

[knitter4democracy]

10. This. We're managed by our local school district.

I work in a charter. We have our own board and directors (principals), but we're managed by one of the local school districts, so our teachers are union members with union contracts. Not all charters are evil.

[Drale]

2. Thats exactly what it is

Charter school makes it sound like someplace rich kids go and we all know rich kids schools are the best of the best.

[palm_to_forehead]

3. What?

Since when are charter schools all corporately owned?

Virtually all of them around here are public schools.

Perhaps your argument should be why are corporately owned private schools allowed to call themselves charter schools.

[applegrove]

6. I should have researched the word charter more. I never knew what it meant when

applied to schools. Now I know.

[RC]

5. What is the advantage of charter schools over regular public schools?

[JackintheGreen]

7. Depends on the charter

and I mean the legal document that grants the school its existence, not the shorthand for "charter school."

In some states charter schools can write just about anything into their charter that the dept of ed will agree to. Traditional public schools more or less must hew to the pedagogical model defined by the state. Charters can pursue any number of pedagogy models, curricula, internal hierarchies, etc. But the money still comes from the state and the school is still subject to state audits for efficiency and effectiveness.

[palm_to_forehead]

8. The very idea that there is an advantage has not been reliably proven.

The stats are all over the place and it would actually be pretty easy to make an argument that charter schools are not better than their traditional school district counterparts.

[knitter4democracy]

11. It works well for alternative schools.

Smaller staff, smaller administrative staff with less red tape, ability to make decisions more quickly, and we aren't saddled with hiding away and hoping the main district doesn't know we exist.

[here_is_to_hope]

9. We have one here, its owned by the school district...

...and all of the 'granola crunchers' drive their kids 30 miles round trip for the priveledge. It fares no better or worse than the other local schools but I can only contrast the kids I know with my own way above average child. That and the parents have to volunteer to do maintenance on the place.
Mcdonaldization of education.