The NC and national PTA have expressed concerns on these topics that the editorial board needs to study.

Want to know how many schools in North Carolina had to rehire their staff because they were qualified as failing? 16. Out of 2534. And I can guarantee more than that one charter is having those problems.

And next time do your research a little better. The North Carolina Republicans also just decided that charter schools no longer have to be racially representative of the areas they’re serving. Which means that a rich white member of the community who is tired of seeing all the middle class and upper class students having to attend school with (gasp!) poor minorities can create their own charter and take us back to those segregated school days. Which will then take the money that these white kids are bringing into these schools, and make the education situation even worse for these poor minorities.

Also, all these Carolina students that want to teach but didn’t major in teaching? Go get your masters in teaching. Most of us are planning on going to grad school anyway. Very few people can walk into a classroom and be an effective teacher. And you implying that they can discredits teachers and the hard work that they put into their job every single day in order to give this country a bright future. Shame on you.

Next time know what you’re talking about before you act like it’s the greatest invention since sliced bread. If you really want education reform, you should suggest that all these people pouring their money into charters figure out a way to give it to our public schools that often don’t even get enough funds to buy supplies thanks to constant budget cuts. Which have gotten worse due to the Republican majority in the North Carolina legislature.

And I’m confused as to which failures I mentioned are in any way related to parents involvement in kids’ education. The administrative problems of charter schools? The fact that they no longer have to be racially representative? Unqualified teachers? Segregated schools? Yes, parents should be involved in their child’s education. It poses a significant problem when kids are entering kindergarten without receiving any educational experience at home and when they don’t receive educational support at home. But if parents were supposed to be in charge of said education, everyone would be home schooled. However, parents do not have teaching degrees (just like many charter school teachers!). In predominantly minority lower class neighborhoods, parents often don’t even have a high school diploma. Which is why we have licensed teachers and public schools. Charter schools were in no way created to hold parents accountable. In fact, they often try to separate children from their home life as much as possible because they think that taking those kids out of potentially harmful home situations will improve their education. Is that putting parents in charge of their kids’ education? No. It’s not. It’s actually the opposite. And while some do try to work with families, so do public schools. Ever heard of a parent/teacher conference?

Finally, it is most important that parents are aware of what their child’s teachers are like, what is going on in the class, and the climate of the school day. Parents are the most important group of people who can change the failures of our schools, whether it is a charter or public.

It is difficult for many parents with college degrees to go into their child’s school and judge the quality of the institution. It is that much harder for a parent who didn’t graduate high school or get an opportunity to attend college to walk into a school and attempt to take charge of their child’s learning by judging what’s being taught and the quality of the learning environment. While this is typically an option for middle and upper class white families, it’s just not realistic for poor minorities.

There are bad teachers and failing schools. However, the formation of charters has become a convenient way to appear to be solving the problem when we’re actually just ignoring it. These failing schools are the ones that need more funds for things like supplies, tutors, supplemental teacher pay to attract top talent, etc. However, the more charters we create, the more state and federal funds are allocated for them and the less funds that are available to public schools. And education budgets aren’t getting any bigger.

Yes, transportation is an issue. But identifying it as a cause of the problem doesn’t change the fact that a. it’s not a solution and b. charter schools are still increasingly more segregated.

Parental support for education is ideal, and studies have shown that it increases school performance. However, teachers have to go to work every day and overcome home situations. Whether it’s as severe as an abusive parent or a situation where you have a single parent working two jobs in order to keep food on the table and who just doesn’t have time to sit down with their kid and talk about what happened in school that day or to try to help them with their homework.

Unless you’re a teacher in a KIPP school. KIPP schools have an extensive application process to weed out the kids that don’t have sufficient family support outside of the classroom. Therefore, they are only accepting kids that are predisposed to achieve well and leaving the kids who might need some extra help to the public school system. Convenient.

It also includes comparison info on class sizes; school safety/crime rates; the percentage of certified teachers, teacher turnover rate, teachers with advanced degrees; and the percentage of student attendance rates.

A little research for any given charter school will tell you where it stands compared to other schools in the county and state— all based on the same stats and test scores. A parent can look at any school report card and say “kids in this school are far below the norm for this county and state so I wont send them there,” or “hey, these kids are performing exceptionally well compared to every other school in my county!”

So, although you say there is little state regulation, the academic performance of charter schools can still be evaluated.

When this resource is used, I’m sure it’s extremely helpful to parents in learning more about their child’s school. However, it’s important to realize that this kind of system has specific limitations, such as internet access and the ability of parents/family members/legal guardians being able to interpret the data.