Charter Schools

This weekend I had the chance to walk through a charter school in New Orleans. This was not only my first chance in the city of New Orleans, but also my first chance to walk through a charter school so I was curious to see a little bit of what these schools were all about. As I walked through the school, I began to wonder how well these schools are accepted into this area. Charter schools, which are exempt from school regulations, have more opportunities in the ways in which they run their schools. However, is this a good or bad concept that has been brought into this city? Tonight, as I began to do a little more research into these schools, I have come to see the benefits of their existence in types of areas like New Orleans. The main benefits including more choices for students, diversity, specialization, less bureaucracy, and more planning allowed for the school. Each one separately affects the school, but ultimately gives the school more benefits than a regular public school. Starting with the choices for students, charter schools are not districted to a certain area like a public school but instead are based on a lottery system that allows for students to pick whether or not they attend the school. Also this leads to the second benefit, which is diversity. Charter schools since are not districted to a certain area allow for a wide range of student bodies including students from poor areas to more affluent areas. This continues to enhance the minorities groups of the schools. The third benefit of a charter school is the idea of specialization. Many but not all charter schools participate in specialized programs for the students that emphasize special subjects such as art and the sciences.  This allows the students who come to these schools to have connections with other students in their learning enhancing the learning environment. The fourth benefit is the fact that charter schools do not have to work with the “middle” man therefore eliminate the bureaucracy many public schools deal with daily. The last and final benefit is that charter schools are required to meet certain performance goals, which includes a great deal or management. This effort often forces the school to exceed and push students to gain greater education.

            Each one of these benefits, I believe are great reasons for charter schools to be apart of cities like New Orleans. It pushes not only the limits of the students, but ultimately ends up changing the dynamics of the neighborhoods in which they are presented. One day I hope to maybe teach or be apart of one of these classrooms at sometime in my career to see the differences between a normal public school and a charter school. I think this will be the only time that I could truly agree or disagree whether or not these schools are beneficial or harming of the students and cities. 

Image Citation: http://www.missoulademocrats.org/HB%20603