Public Schools and Charter Schools, Essay Example

If there is any one great advantage that charter schools offer, it is all about having choices. Students and parents get numerous education options from charter schools. Their existence serves to prop up a healthy competition with traditional schools and a catalyst for the improvement of the public school system. With sound fiscal management, they can serve as laboratories for education experimentation and innovation. With the easing of certain regulations, teachers and administrators in charter schools are given greater freedom to develop and implement new learning strategies. The increased accountability likewise puts pressure on them to perform well or face closure. Charter schools must work to be competitive at all times, and to maintain their academic performance, student’s retention, and finances (Welch, 2011). Chartering allows the school to run autonomously of the existing public school system and gives them the freedom to tailor programs respecting the community needs. Since it is the parents who most commonly start the creation of these schools, they as part of the bigger community get to decide what kind of school will most meet their needs. Having a choice in schools also can help students discover and develop their academic strengths.

On the other hand, the public school has always been looked upon as a system that emphasizes equality and individual freedom. They are an essential part of the country’s infrastructure and are made available to all citizens regardless of income level. On the part of the public school system, its existence for the longest time can be considered its greatest advantage. The curriculum has been tried and tested to yield academic performance and has established linkages and networks with other public schools. With the rigid recruitment and screening process in the public school system, expectedly its administration and teaching staff possesses the required experience, skill and expertise in their fields. There are also built-in opportunities that are already in place in a public school such as extracurricular activities and offer of scholarships and continual education to college.

If there is anything that has severely affected the general student populace, most of whom are in the traditional public schools, it is actually the charter programs because they eat up a chunk of the funding which would have gone to public schools. As a consequence of limited funding and budget cuts, standard public schools will have to increase class sizes, cut extracurricular activities and end their own pioneering initiatives. Charter schools also are perceived to be of no benefit to the local community inasmuch as they do not work with the local school system (Kingsbury, 2004). Insofar as they operate like a business institution, they are subject to market forces which play a great role in the school’s viability. Teachers’ unions are particularly against charter schools because they contend that these schools tend to segregate students along the racial and class lines, fail to adequately serve students with disabilities or limited English proficiency and their reliance on inexperienced and unlicensed teachers (Frankenberg & Siegel-Hawley, 2009).

In conclusion, public schools having long been institutionalized can be relied upon to do and continue its task in giving better and quality education to the general American public. It cannot do so however without the necessary support and mutual collaboration of the primary stakeholders – education policy makers, federal government, local community, school administrators, teaching staff, students and parents.

References

Frankenberg,E. & Siegel-Hawley,G. (2009) Equity overlooked: Charter schools and civil rights policy. Los Angeles: Civil Rights Project / Proyecto Derechos Civiles. Retrieved from http://civilrightsproject.ucla.edu/research/k-12-education/integration-and-diversity/choice-without-equity-2009-report/frankenberg-choices-without-equity-2010.pdf

Kingsbury, Kathleen (2004, August). Charter schools remain subject of debate. CNN News.  Retrieved from http://edition.cnn.com/2004/EDUCATION/08/13/b2s.charters/index.html

Murarka, Sonali (2004, May) Charter Schools vs. Traditional Public Schools: Comparing Schools that Work with Students of Limited English Proficiency. Stanford University.

Ohlemacher, S. (2006, August) Report: Charter school pupils score lower. Boston Globe

Welch, M. (2011) Eight-year study and charter legitimacy, Journal of Education 191 (2): 55–65