Austin, sorry, I misspoke (mistyped?) when I said private when what I intended was for profit. Many charter schools are run by for profit companies with the use of our tax dollars and have far fewer regulations than public schools.
If you make a profit, then you have managed your resources well. That is all it means.
I've yet to see a public entity show a profit at the end of the year. Part of it is due to the budgeting process and the lack of accountability and part of it is due to the regulatory strings attached to the money.
Texas does not require charters to hire certified teachers, either, just as a number of other states also exempt charters from certification.
I am not a certified teacher, but I could teach ANY subject taught in school today. I easily can enthrall any group of boys or girls. I really don't see what you need beyond subject mastery and street smarts to teach kids. The certification process is just a way to line the pockets of those who do certification and to limit entry to the field.
Less oversight isn't good in those situations, especially when you have a for profit company making the decision to hire fewer teachers and increase its profits rather than smaller classes.
If the parents did not think it was working and the test scores did not show progress, isn't that enough?
Oversight today is not getting the job done anyway so we need to throw that out and try something else.
One problem with the idea of school choice and the transfer of public monies to private schools and/or for profit charters is that there is no requirement that those schools accepting public monies accept any and all applicants/transfers.
Why should any school accept anyone? If you cannot do the classwork and your parents will not make you do your home work and you are disruptive in class, then the program is not for you and you need to be in another school.
Right now if you are poor, you will not be able afford to live in the top school districts. So you should just suck it up and go to a real bad school?
Force Andover or Hockaday to accept anyone who applies and they become just another school, with some exceptionsl students and some who could care less.
Last time I checked, most of the top private schools in Dallas have over 1/3 of their kids on a free ride and each has a deep commitment to identify deserving kids of limited means. I know of one person who was in the worst school in Dallas and got into St Marks. And it literally changed his life.
Universal education demands that even those who do not want an education receive the tools and lessons for one, and then our public schools are unfairly compared to those private and charter schools who get to skim the cream. Apples and oranges.
I don't think most of these kids are the cream of the crop. Instead, their parents are motivated and they are motivated. Most people could perform at a much higher level if they were in a program as a kid that demanded that of them.
Most of these schools have lottery systems which complete eliminates the lobbying aspect.
Yes, we need to do something to fix our schools, especially those which are corrupt. Unfortunately, corrupt school districts are often merely symptoms of the larger problem in this country, the apathetic citizenry (some school boards are elected with less than 10% of registered voters casting ballots).
Give people incentives. Give them choices. The situation in the school is a result of how the system is structured. You can keep the ideal of universal education, but allow bad schools to die and be replaced as a design feature of the system.
People complain about NCLB but don't connect it to the legislators who have personal or lobbying ties to the testing companies.
Reduce the ability of government to lock people in and reduce the ability of lobbyists to control the flow of money by structuring the system to prevent it. People will vote with their feet if you give them a place to walk to.
If someone can do this and make a profit, then they deserve our high praise. Let them make even more if they can.
I don't see how making money is evil which is the glue running through your post.
