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Aaron and Jennifer wrote:

> Students need to be held responsible, not hold others accountable for a
> student's laziness - or whatever the case may be.

Amen and then some. In the charter school I worked for, appearances were more
important than most anything else, and the parents are allowed to run the place
under the guise of "parental involvement in their children's education". I
think the appearances part may be like that for any charter school, because they
all live and die in the court of public opinion. The parents complained when
the kids had to write reports, and protested when I required them have correct
spelling and grammar. "They can't do that!", and "They're just learning these
things; you can't expect them to do it right." were the excuses I heard, and
these excuses were coming from parents who were supposedly interested in their
children's welfare and education.

I don't necessarily think that charter schools are all bad. The concept is
good: competition has the potential to make schools better. _IF_ the charter
schools are turning out better education than the public schools and IF the
public schools want to stay in operation, they'll raise the bar to compete w/
the charter schools, and the kids have to win in that situation.

I think that public school folks resent the charter schools because they have
the misconception that charter schools take money away from public schools.
Charter schools (in NC at least) are only given the money for the heads they
teach. Since those heads are not sitting in public classrooms, the public
schools are not entitled to those funds, just as if those same students were
sitting in private schools. Charter schools don't get any extra $ from the
state.

There's no local supplement for the charter teachers' salaries and no tenure,
either. Charter teachers get paid whatever their company agrees to pay them,
regardless of what the public schools pay. At my school, we were told that the
pay and benefits were comparable to those of public school teachers. For
first-year teachers, that was true, but we found out later that it was NOT true
for more experienced teachers, and in fact, the corporation made benefits
decisions based on the religious beliefs of the owners rather than being
comparable to the state benefits package. I'm sure not every charter school is
run this way, but from what I've seen, most charter schools are run by small
groups of people and not corporations.

In short, if you're considering going to work for a charter school, caveat
emptor. Do your homework before you take the plunge. Talk to some of the
teachers who are working in the school you're considering. If possible, talk to
a first year teacher AND an experienced teacher to get both ends of the
perspective scale. And whatever you do, GET IT IN WRITING.

L

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