Charter Schools

School Administrator, August, 1997 by William J. Leary

In Charter Schools, author Joe Nathan, a senior fellow at the University of Minnesota's Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs, demonstrates his strong support for charters. He considers charter schools to be a continuation of a 200-year effort to expand educational opportunity for children in the United States.

Nathan's book highlights the success of charter school legislation in Minnesota, Colorado, Boston, and Detroit. This legislation, he points out, has given parents, students, and teachers an opportunity to obtain autonomy from the bureaucracy in such areas as curriculum, budget, and hiring practices.

Nathan takes issue with those who question or oppose the charter school movement, among them teacher unions, administrators, school boards, and legislators. He believes "it is time to try a different kind of system." The author then provides road maps to create a model charter school and charter school legislation.

Whether or not one agrees with his advocacy position, readers will find he writes with a passion and conviction that conveys his care and concern about the state of public schooling in America.

(Charter Schools, by Joe Nathan, Jossey-Bass Publishers, 1996, 249 pp. with index, $22.50 hardcover. Available at a discount from AASA Distribution Center, Stock #741, se above)