Charter schools' spending varies in the Mecklenburg area, per-pupil outlays ranged from $6,194 to $15,157
I am a product of public education in North Carolina: my high school graduating class was the first one to go all twelve years under court ordered busing here in Mecklenburg. I also graduated from Central Piedmont Community College, Appalachian State, and UNC-Charlotte ... so I know firsthand that NC has a very good public education system from kindergarten to college.
I don't dismiss the value of charter schools but I do have a problem with for-profit entities running them.
Queens Grant, operated by the Michigan-based National Heritage Academies...a for-profit chain that operates 71 schools in nine states
Queens Grant is located in my community and I have several friends who send their children there. They are pleased with the education their children are receiving but National Heritage is using money intended for PUBLIC education to pad their bottom line.
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Great point, Gray
If we listen to the free-market extremists, we hear the constant refrain that the private sector should be freed to do whatever it wants. I guess they forgot to mention the big asterisk: some private companies can't survive without public subsidies.
James
PS I'm so happy to have you in the frontpager mix, especially given your plans to cover political developments in and around the Queen City. Here's to a great year!
The real question is:
Why are so many families choosing to leave the Charlotte Mecklenburg School System and enrolling their children in Charter Schools or home school? As a parent of 3 children who graduated from the Charlotte system, middle class parents were able to use the magnet system to ensure their children get a quality education. The concern for me was the schools was not removing the unruly students and those unruly students prevent their own children from getting a quality education.
Apparantly, the school system has changed the process regarding magnet schools which is why so many middle class parents are taking their children out of the public system. Back when I was in the public school system, I remember that I learned the most from my strictist teachers. Have our teachers been forced to coddle the unruly students who refuse to respect the leadership of their teachers? We continue to spend more and more on the public schools but we are not getting good results for the money we spend. Maybe it's time we try something different.
Frank, I pulled my children from CMS
I don't regret it one bit. I volunteered full time at my daughters' school and had just been elected PTA president when we'd finally had enough. I did everything I could to work within the system, but six years ago that system was badly broken. I also worked part time for several months in the school's media center while they filled the media specialist position. I have stories that would curl your toes - and they are all first-hand, not stories brought home by my children.
I graduated from CMS schools and UNC and have taken various courses at CPCC. I believe in public education. I also believe that the education and emotional health of our children should not be sacrificed just to support a public school system that desperately needs help.
We home-schooled for a couple of years, but I don't believe this is a viable long-term answer for the vast majority of families.
Our girls went to an international charter school for a couple of years and we had some wonderful experiences there. The school relied on a great deal of parental involvement to succeed. The early years are a challenge for many charter schools and it is up to the parents and school administration to raise the money to keep the doors open.
There are so many reasons our public schools are not what they should be. As a parent I appreciate having the choices available to make sure my children receive(d) the best education possible in this state. However, I do not believe the state or local school districts should fund these choices beyond the minimal amount the state sets aside for charter schools. I also do not believe the number of charter schools should be allowed to increase until we see the long-term results in our test scores, graduation rates and entry rates into colleges/universities/job market from the existing schools.
In my opinion (and only my opinion) the most important thing we could do for our students is to hire the best teachers possible and give them back autonomy in the classroom. We should stop dictating what they do every single minute of the day. Allow them some creativity. Show them the respect they deserve and teach our children to show them the respect they deserve.
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Vote Democratic, the ass you save may be your own.
Betsy, I don't blame you one bit
for pulling your children out of the CMS system. I believe you touch on a key point and that is give the teachers autonomy in the classroom. The public school system is broke and if there are kids who don't want to learn, then they should be pulled from the classroom and sent to reform school or something so they don't spoil the education of those who want to learn and still respect the teachers.
numbers behind your statements
Frank - Do you have any facts to back up these claims? I would be interested in seeing where your data is coming from.
Grey background
Grey, I did some searches on the internet and found the following. I hope it gives you the background you need. Let me know if you need anything further. Basically we see that a significant number 19% of students don't attend CMS, we see that magnet school attendance is dropping due to school bus cuts. We also see data how we have greatly increased education spending in our nation but have no improvement noted in student testing. We spend the second most of any nation but have mediocre results to show for that spending. I'm not an education expert by any means, but logically I would say that we are doing something wrong and throwing more money at the problem is not working.
http://www.ehow.com/info_7906815_union-north-carolina-charter-schools.html
In 2011 three percent of North Carolina's children attended charter schools, with a further 15,000 on waiting lists.
http://www.pbs.org/closingtheachievementgap/faq.html
> Why are charter schools so popular?
Proponents believe charter schools provide better opportunities for child-centered education and more educational choices for their children. Operators have the opportunity and the incentive to create schools that provide new and better services to students. And charters, bound by the high standards they have set for themselves, inspire the rest of the system to work harder and be more responsive to the needs of the children.
http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2011/10/30/2734260/magnet-school-issues...
CMS cuts funds for magnet buses.
http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2010/09/15/1693635/parents-slam-magnet-...
http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2010/06/22/1516464/cms-magnet-schools-a...
Magnet schools under siege.
19% of Charlotte Mecklenburg students attend private, charter or home schools. http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2011/10/07/2668461/black-hispanic-enrol...
http://www.thenewamerican.com/culture/education/9198-report-education-sp...
Education spending
1997 - $33.52 billion
1998 - $35.67 billion
1999 - $38.31 billion
2000 - $38.44 billion
2001 - $42.06 billion
2002 - $56.17 billion
2003 - $63.25 billion
2004 - $67.21 billion
2005 - $71.47 billion
2006 - $100.04 billion (due to a jump in Federal Family Education Loans)
2007 - $67.12 billion
2008 - $68.57 billion
2009 - $138.00 billion (regular spending of $39.88 billion plus $98.23 billion under the Recovery Act)
2010 - $63.00 billion
The astronomical figures could theoretically (but not constitutionally) be defendable if there has been a marked and significant increase in educational achievement in America’s public schools. Unfortunately that has not been the case. CNS News reports:
Results from the Nation’s Report Card for Fourth Grade reading proficiency in 2002 found 38 percent below basic, 32 percent basic, 23 percent proficient and 6 percent advanced. In 2009 for reading, 34 percent were below basic, 34 percent at basic, 24 percent at proficient and 7 percent at advanced.
http://blog.heritage.org/2010/01/29/is-increasing-education-spending-rea...
Secretary Duncan’s email offered a sneak-peak of the highlights of the Obama administration’s 2011 budget for education: “a massive increase in student aid” ($156 billion for 2011), a $4 billion increase for K-12 education programs, and new funding ($9.3 billion over 10 years) for a new federal preschool program.
But is this really good news for American students and taxpayers? Past experiences suggest the answer is negative:
•In higher education, decades of increasing spending on federal student aid has failed to solve the college affordability problem, and evidence suggests that rising subsidies have spurred skyrocketing tuition costs.
•In K-12 education, the ever-expanding federal role has done little to fix the crises in our nation’s classrooms. Since the 1970s, federal per-student spending has tripled, while long-term test scores are relatively flat and the performance in many school districts remains abysmal.
•A new national evaluation of the federal Head Start program found that the largest federal preschool program, which has received $167 billion since 1965, is a complete failure—providing zero lasting benefits for students by the end of first grade. Little is known about the effectiveness of the other 68 federal preschool and child care programs.
The Heritage Institute
At least now we know where you're buying your kool-aid.
I've seen plenty of studies in my lifetime that have been designed to support a going-in philosophical position, but no organization is more bankrupt in terms of objectivity than the zealots at Heritage. If they were professors in R1 universities, they'd be dumped from the faculty for ethics violations.
PS to Frank
Please don't cut and paste large blocks from other websites. Your comment violates the intellectual property rights of the original authors. I know you free-market types don't care much for pesky government rules and regulations, but you're not the one who would be liable in the case of legal action ... I would.
PSS to James
I apologize if I vilolated a rule. I thought as long as we posted the source it wasn't a violation. I won't do it in the future, it's your blog and I'll follow your rules.
No worries
It's not my rule, it's copyright law. And while the legal standards are still fuzzy, there are generally accepted guidelines that apply in the blogosphere.
Even when you provide a link to the source, only "snippets" can be cut and pasted.
More information here. The third bullet under "What is fair use?" is most relevant for this discussion.
Thanks for helping us stay out of legal trouble.
Perhaps but...
the reference just reported the results of the government study and provided their own commentary. I don't reckon, you'll find this government study on any leftwing sites as it is not a pretty picture from their point of view.
Excellent point, Gray
As a parent of daughters who both attended a charter school I would want this information. Maybe these schools will turn out more successful and better prepared students. However, if they do not, they should be on a very short leash with the risk of losing all public funds if performance doesn't improve.
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Vote Democratic, the ass you save may be your own.