Why are some districts and state governments turning to charters?
There is a sense of frustration in the United States about the achievement level of all kids. State legislatures, and school Districts are having lots of trouble meeting the needs of all students and there seems to be a sense of urgency right now with respect to 'What are we doing about the education of our kids?". Everybody's worried about the future, and I believe that the Charter Schools have been a good instrument for all types of politicians and bureaucrats to rally around, and to say this could be a way in which we are going to achieve what we need to; in order to increase achievement for all students. In some places, larger Urban districts, for example, Charter schools are being used as a way to open new schools without costly facilities development. New York, for example, is using Charter schools as a way to meet the needs of their programming for the amounts of students that are being infused into that school system. In Los Angeles, for example, there's also lots of Charter schools cropping around in areas where there is high need for seats. This means, that the School District there can not open buildings fast enough to be able to meet the needs of those communities. In some cases, the students that live in those neighborhoods have to catch the bus to far away areas for the students to go to school, and Charter schools are being seen as a way to start up new schools very quickly. So, students don't have to be use the bus out of their neighborhoods and still attend a public school.
