Poll: Voters want more charter schools

Last week, the House passed bill 856 which modifies the cap on public charter schools from 100 to 106. It's now being considered in the Senate. At present, there are 97 public charter schools serving approximately 33,000 students throughout the state.

HB 856 is a step in the right direction, but much too small of one. Today, more than 16,000 children throughout North Carolina are on waiting lists for public charter schools. We would need at least 20 new schools right now just to meet current demand.

Not only would the proposed modest cap change still leave thousands of children on waiting lists, there is a significant financial cost as well. At a time when the state is scrambling to find revenue to fund schools, lifting the cap by only six would place the state at a disadvantage for subsequent rounds of federal stimulus funding and severely limit the amount of funds NC could receive from US Dept of Ed Charter School Program.

Additionally, North Carolina stands to miss out on a number of innovative national education initiatives and substantial national private foundation money -- certain to go to states more receptive to charter growth instead.

While the North Carolina Alliance of Public Charter Schools would like to see a complete lift of the cap, it is currently focusing its efforts on pushing for recommendations outlined by the Blue Ribbon Commission, a group of education leaders appointed by the North Carolina State Board of Education in 2007 to examine public charter schools in the state.

The Commission recommendations include approving up to six new public charter schools each year, allowing public charters with a proven track record of success (particularly those successful in closing the achievement gap for at-risk students) to replicate without counting towards the cap and allowing the first public charter school in a county without a charter school to not count towards the cap.

Most North Carolinians want the cap lifted, as the poll shows, black and white, democrat and republican.

President Obama and Secretary of Education Arne Duncan have both enthusiastically come out in support of increasing the number of public charter schools.

Most states across the nation have recognized that there is a critical need to try new and innovative approaches to improving student achievement in our public schools. Public charter schools give parents choices within the public school system. They have the flexibility to try innovative ways of improving learning with the goal of sharing what works with the broader public school system so that all students benefit.

Public charter schools are held to higher standards of accountability than traditional public schools. Not only are they accountable to the families that chose them, they’re also accountable to their authorizer, the State Board of Education, who can close down the school if it doesn’t meet its fiscal and operational goals.

High quality public charter schools are good for children. And good for North Carolina. By lifting the cap on public charter schools, we all gain.

Note: Stephen Raburn is acting executive director for the North Carolina Alliance for Public Charter Schools, which is based in Durham.

I don't see a whole lot of real evidence to suggest quality is plummeting. While bitching about schools seems to be everyone's favorite hobby these days, I think there's plenty we can be proud of with regards to our public school teachers. Don't let some idiot with a hidden agenda tell you how to think on the subject. From corporations pushing H-1B and L-1 visas to religious groups pushing home schooling, there is a lot of BS driving the loudest complaints about our public schools.

I do think No Child Left Untested was one of the biggest mistakes we've made in education the past 10 years. I also think that we need to give teachers more autonomy to teach their students, rather than assuming some state government bureaucrat's minute-by-minute lesson plan is better. Educational systems in foreign countries that produce the best results are known for allowing the teachers to be the professionals they train them to be. It should also be noted that charter schools are not burdened with the bureaucratic BS that our public school teachers have to endure.

We also need to do a better job of separating out the bad apples. There are limits to what we can do for kids that were poorly raised by their parents and/or are the product of a poor environment. Certainly, we need to give them the opportunity to shape up when behavior problems arise. However, if they fail to shape up, allowing them to stay in class with kids that really want to learn is only asking for trouble.

Why have a cap at all? Let parents decide where their kids get educated. Having a cap is simply a government controlled monopoly. Just like any other monopoly, the costs sky rocket, and the quality plummets.

No surprise here. Parents are demanding a better education for their kids. Why should they be forced to pay for a private education when their property and other taxes are so high, i.e. they are already footing the bill for public schools? Public education needs to adapt to the demands of the customers they serve.