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The Daily Tar Heel

A charter for success: lifting cap on privately run, publicly funded schools in North Carolina would bene?t schools, students

North Carolina should lift its cap on charter schools in order to be more competitive for federal grants and give students more choices and opportunities.

The state hopes to receive $469.5 million in federal education grants for the next four years.

States that provide favorable environments for charter schools will have an advantage to receive this money. But North Carolina has mandated that no more than 100 charter schools can be approved.

Charter schools are funded by public money but are run by private or nonprofit administrators. These schools do not have to be subject to a huge bureaucracy, which allows them to operate more efficiently. Educators have more autonomy regarding the curriculum and selection of textbooks.

In addition, charter institutions are not bound by any specific district or town, which allows for a more diverse student body.

At Carter Community School, a K-8 charter school in Durham, the administration has found innovative ways to reduce student-teacher ratios, resulting in an average ratio of 16:1.

Gail Taylor, principal of the school, said these advantages allow charter schools to “create an environment which changes lives”.

Opponents of charter schools maintain that these institutions have not been shown to be any better than traditional public schools. They point to a 2007 study by the N.C. Center for Public Policy Research that concluded that charter schools as a whole performed worse than public schools in important statistics such as the graduation rate.

Additionally, charter schools allow for parents to have more control over their children’s schooling. This allows for better choice in education, something every child deserves.

For instance, parents who prefer a classical liberal arts program could enroll their child in Woods Charter School in Chapel Hill, which specializes in this curriculum.

Millions of federal dollars for education could be at stake if North Carolina does not change its policy toward charter schools. But the state has never fully embraced them.

It is time to lift the cap on charter schools.

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