Charter Course

Reason, March, 2000 by Nick Gillespie

There have, of course, been problems. For instance, the Ohio Department of Education has moved to revoke the charter of a military-style school in Columbus that failed to renovate its school building properly and issue required textbooks. Elsewhere, there have been reports of students attending classes in buildings lacking sprinklers or adequate fire alarm systems. Additionally, some members of the state Board of Education, which grants the charters, have complained that they don't always have adequate time to review applications.

These issues are not trivial, but neither do they damn the charter system. If anything, they call attention to the varied experiments now taking place. If there were no problems, that would suggest that the state wasn't granting enough charters. An experiment with no mistakes is an experiment whose outcome has been predetermined-and whose point is less than pressing.

In spite of such concerns, charters have been welcomed with open arms by students and parents in Ohio. Indeed, total enrollment is expected to more than double next fall, when charters will be allowed in the state's 21 largest cities and in the state's weakest school districts. By the time the Supreme Court does rule on the Cleveland voucher plan, the landscape of public education will already be markedly different.

Certainly, it is significant that Ohio--a state held up (or derided) as defining mainstream America-has enthusiastically embraced charters. If it's happening there, it's happening everywhere. The "center" is not holding, but something very different from "anarchy" is emerging in public education.