The whole point of charter schools: Choice

February 14, 2004

A battle was waged recently in California, where supporters of charter schools won a court ruling to be able to use closed public schools in which to open theirs. Which makes perfect sense to us: if a school is not being used, why not permit a charter school to utilize the space? Fortunately, the California Supreme Court upheld the ruling, after an appeal by opponents of charter schools.

It is illustrative to see who joined together to file this appeal: the Sequoia Union High School District, the California Teachers Union and the California School Board Association.

In a Washington Times column this week, Deborah Simmons writes:

That parents are still fighting the usual suspects more than a decade after the first charter school law was established in Minnesota is noteworthy. Many school officials, teachers unions and school boards remain quite hostile to school choice. They do not want the competition. They want schools mired in their red tape. They do not want charter schools because charter schools are usually free of union control. School boards do not support choice because it gives parents, teachers and community leaders the freedom to operate outside of their political regimes.

Emphasis ours. There are several levels to school reform in this country. At one level, we have the battle for educational standards within our schools, and at a much higher level, we have the battle for certification standards for teachers.

But both of these arguments become less important when we hand parents the baton. When they have the power to choose schools, then the best ways of teaching kids or certifying teachers naturally bubbles to the surface.

But what happens when public school systems are accountable to no one, such as when parents have no choice but to send their children to the government monopoly schools?

In the state of Washington, teachers and others for years have tried and failed to establish charter schools. One of 10 states that has no law favoring the establishment of charter schools, Washington superintendents are as likely to turn a deaf ear as to ignore your telephone calls. "You are simply thwarted at every turn," a Seattle parent, Robin J. Lake, recently wrote in the Seattle Times.

Public schools are simply immune from the needs of their constituents, when they're the only game in town.

The bottom line is this:

Charter schools and vouchers offer choice to parents and academic hope to students — especially parents in urban school districts whose children often have no choice but to attend failing neighborhood schools.

Any questions?