Public Education

Public education in the United States is perhaps one of the most critical issues we face as a nation. Once pronouncing the United States as a “nation at risk”, the educational institution began to implement one reform strategy after another. In efforts to improve schooling for K-12 students, education reform has fiddled with class size, revised graduation requirements, and created standardized testing just to name a few. Unfortunately, traditional public schools are still failing to provide students with a quality education. This is disheartening as we learn that the United States lags behind in math and science compared to our international counterparts. It is safe to say that educational reform has spent billions of dollars over the years in an honest effort to reform education in American; however, most reform decisions have produced little changes.

Among the many radical education reform strategies implemented, charter schools are perhaps one of the most prominent. It has been roughly twenty years since several states opened a number of charter schools. The best way to describe charter schools is to say they are independent public schools of choice that are free from rules and regulations compared to traditional public schools. Charter schools are accountable for producing results; otherwise, they are subject to closing due to failing performance. There are more than 5,400 charter schools serving more than 1.7 million children across the country (Center for Education Reform, 2010). Currently, 40 states and the District of Columbia have charter school with 41 laws in place and only 13 have strong laws. The states with the strong laws, 65 percent show positive achievement gains (Center for Education Reform, 2010). These stati...

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...ountry could benefit from the presence of charter schools. Although traditional public schooling is in trouble, they are not lost. With thousands of students on waiting list for charter school enrollment and a thousand more who will not attend a school of choice speaks to the need for charter schools. Conventional public schools need to move beyond the mandates of a bureaucratic system in order to experience real revitalization. Perhaps Andy Smarick has the right idea instead of trying to fix failing schools close them and start fresh (2010). Perhaps it is unrealistic to believe with the number of failing schools across this country we could replace them with new schools, but it is clear that something has to be done to ensure a quality education exist for all students. In the meantime, why not give charter schools a chance to educate those who they can serve.