Charter Schools

Transparent Statement:
I am against charter schools — at least K12 schools are fully funded.

No, that is not a hedge to appeal to all voters or appease teacher unions. Every child has the right to a decent neighborhood school without their parent(s) having to proactively learn how to navigate the school system.

Offering better options only to those children whose parents have the time and resources to select a school unfairly benefits a few privileged children at the expense of the majority. This will continue to perpetuate a system where poor children and children of color have inferior schools.

I am well aware that different children excel in different environments. And as a businessperson, I enthusiastically support the notion of enabling people to experiment and pursue new ideas that may work better. In fact, many school districts already offer alternative options — the ones with sufficient funding, anyway.

But until K12 education is fully funded, I just feel that charter schools exacerbate the issues at school districts with insufficient funding.

Local School Board Control?

As for managing charter schools, I would prefer that local School Boards have authority over them, which would simplify the funding, reduce administration overhead, and ensure state standards are met. However, I realize that not all school boards are supportive of charter schools and that such schools may violate agreements with teachers unions.

Each school board should explicitly choose whether or not to support charter schools, including the option of separate teacher contracts. For those districts that opt out, charter schools can be overseen by the State.