Drawbacks To Charter Schools

Are charter schools inconvenient to parents?

Because charter schools are very new in terms of their starting, and in terms of the geographic areas that they are in, not every neighborhood has a charter school. Not every community has a charter school, and in some cases, geographically it's not convenient for parents to send their students to a charter school. In some cases, parents make tremendous sacrifices to send their child to a charter school. Until we get to a point where we have critical mass, where we can really have one charter school in every neighborhood, there will be some inconveniences for families in terms of sending their child or children to charter schools.

Are charter school facilities on par with their public or private counterparts?

There needs to be an understanding about charter schools and facilities. Charter schools do not receive funding from the state for facilities. Every charter school must take money out of what's called a general fund and pay for facilities, either to build them, or lease them or renovate them. That takes a lot of money, and it takes a lot out of the charter school's budget. So, in essence, you've almost taken out possibly 30 percent of a budget for a charter school just to be able to operate its facility. Are charter school facilities on par with traditional public schools? In some cases, charter school facilities are much more beautiful, because they are not as old as a traditional public school. In other cases, a traditional public school just built a facility down the road a year and a half ago, and the charter school happens to be in a warehouse, so they're not on par. It just really varies. It varies from geographic area to geographic area; from school district to school district. But by and large, I think that charter schools happen to be clean places where kids learn, and they're safe places because they're mandated by law that they must be safe, and they must have certificates of occupancy by the local jurisdiction.

What extracurricular activities do charters sometimes lack?

After school activities and other resources in charter schools are limited because of funding. The larger school you have, the more students that you are able to accommodate, the more funding you have, the more economies of scale, the more money you have for extra curricular activities. When you remain small, some of our schools only have a hundred kids, for example, so with some of our charter schools there is very limited resources. And if thirty percent of it goes to your facility, the other goes to your faculty and your personnel, that leaves a little bit of money for extra resources after school. But yet, charter schools do do that, there's a belief in having after school activities for children, there's a belief in keeping students after school rather than leaving them out in their neighbourhoods to really get up into trouble. Many charter schools are being very creative and inventive about how they do after school programs, so we have after school programs in academics, tutoring, homework support, arts, intramural sports in the school for example. Charter schools are creative, they try to do the best for the kids so that although they may not have as many after school programs, they do have after school programs.

Do charter schools provide student transportation?

By and large, charter schools do not provide transportation to and from charter schools for their students. Charter schools are not able to tap into funding for transportation and therefore they're not able to buy a bus, and make travel arrangements for students. That limits the type of students that can come to a charter school. Basically, students who are further away geographically are really dependent on whether or not their parents can get them to the charter school. By and large, we do not provide transportation for students.

Do charters have higher expulsion rates than public or private schools?

Charter schools are mandated to adopt the same expulsion policies that traditional public schools have, and there happens to be a list of those expellable offenses. Expellable offenses include bringing weapons to schools, extraneous harassment, physical harassment or physical contact. Therefore, it's hard to compare whether there are more or less in charter schools than public schools. My belief, however, is that because the charter schools are small, you are going to see a lot less violence in charter schools than in traditional public school, which are very large and impersonal. As a result you are going to see less expulsion rates because you are able to connect with the students better, you are able to give them what they need, and you are able to provide mental health resources to them. But yes, charter schools can expel students.

Do charters have higher dropout rates than public or private schools?

Charter schools, by and large, were founded to decrease the achievement gap, and that not only means in terms of the student's ability to read, write, and compute, but also to stay in school and graduate from high school. The high school in Partnerships to Uplift Communities, for example, has had a 100 percent retention rate. We will have our first graduating class in June of 2007 and hundred percent of the students that enrolled with us at the beginning of ninth grade have stayed with us and are graduating from high school. A hundred percent of them are attending college in September of 2007. The purpose of a charter school is to keep the students. If you look at statistics nationally, charter schools have been able to retain kids and reduce the dropout rate at a much faster rate than traditional public schools.