The Case Against Charter Schools

School Administrator, May, 2001 by Bruno V. Manno

Only the earliest stirrings of serious self-policing are evident in the charter movement itself. And there are troubling instances of political pressure by charter operators seeking to ensure that the bar isn't set too high or to exempt them from sanctions that would otherwise apply to a failing school. (The argument is usually that "We can trust the marketplace to handle accountability.")

Conversely, charter schools are helping public education redefine education accountability. The modal form of public school accountability depends primarily on rules and compliance. But the systemic movement's effort to set high standards for all young people combined with the spread of choices as exemplified in charter schools invite a different approach to accountability. This approach is propelled by public marketplaces in which a school's clients and stakeholders reward its successes, punish its failures and send it signals about what needs to change.

* Allegation No. 4: Charter schools are trendy and get plenty of hype but are not really different from regular schools. They do little that is not already being done by some regular school somewhere.

When critics suggest that little happens in charter schools that is not found elsewhere, they are partly correct. Innovation, though, doesn't always mean plowing virgin soil. Many charter programs are variations on familiar curricular and pedagogical themes so that charter innovation also lies in the rejection of fads and the embrace of the tried and true. A Massachusetts study found most charters were innovative while implementing "good old-fashioned education practices," which were termed "retrovations."

Education arrangements familiar to cosmopolitans can appear revolutionary to locals who never had access to anything of the sort. Certainly, the possibility exists that corporate-style charter chains will resemble cookie-cutters, delivering the same program in Worcester as in Wichita. If it's a solid program and if its type is not available to families in Worcester or Wichita, it may be plenty innovative in the eyes of its clients.

Charters are promoting new approaches to delivering instruction. Some that use on-line teaching exist primarily in cyberspace. Less dramatic innovations are also visible in organizational and institutional arrangements, such as distinctive grade clusters and multiyear instructional teams.

Charters are also institutional innovations. They invite us to think of public schools as autonomous, self-governing institutions that are not controlled or run by a school district.

Finally, it's ironic that some critics who allege that charter schools are not very different from conventional schools are the same people who charge these are eccentric places run by kooks. They want schools that are both different and the same.

Impairing Equity

* Allegation No. 5: Charter schools undermine our society's commitment to educational excellence for all children, impairing equity and exacerbating inequalities of opportunity. They are elitist academies that cream the most fortunate kids and marginalize the poor and minorities.