Charter Schools Unite, Union Schools Divide?

Why do “Charter Schools Keep Winning Students From Union Schools,” enrollment being up 9% in 4 yrs while public counterparts are down 3.5%? Simple as ABC? Charter test results give hope by often outperforming public school failure?

Little wonder, WSJ editors recently argued, that “this has been the year for school choice – from vouchers, to homeschooling, to pod schools with parents who use education savings account. The winners include charter schools, as union-run K-12 schools lost hundreds of thousands of students during Covid-19 who haven’t returned.” As a new study from the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools concluded: “Families have discovered choice ... and they like it.” The newspaper’s editors put a dollars & cents take on the numbers game by saying “Part of the story is that states are working to improve charter offerings” & listing several examples of how that more equalized state funding is affecting the quality of alternative education …

Yet, one might wonder if THAT economic rationale isn’t falling into the trap often used by school union leaders arguing their kids’ test results are crappy because charter schools are “draining” their financial resources. Of course the union retort is disingenuous since public school performance has often sucked way before charter schools existed. Isn’t the better argument for charter schools that they are more likely to REFRESHIGLY focus on the 3-Rs & other basics of a well-rounded education? And, esp by not getting hung up in divisive politics that preach if not teach disruptive union strikes over wages, “reforming” bathroom protocols, insisting on explicit sexual library content for 6-year-olds, falling hook, line & sinker for the NY Time’s controversial 1619 Project, and anything else on the liberal agenda, but learning how to read & write & count & think for oneself?

Davd Soul