This is the second installment of a three-part series examining how teachers, school districts, and the private sector have been “Changed by Charters.” The series is supported by a grant from the Ford Foundation.
Charter schools serve only a tiny fraction of the more than 42 million pre-K-12 students enrolled in public schools in the United States. But the impact of these newcomers may far exceed their scale, by introducing more choice and competition into the public school environment.
In Part II:
- Dayton Feels the Heat From Charter Schools
Dayton’s experience is emblematic of the difficulty urban districts can face in coexisting with charter schools, public schools that operate free from most district rules. With the number of charters on the rise nationwide—nearly 2,400 schools enroll 580,000 students—the ease or unease of that coexistence is increasingly important.
- Charter Pioneers Force Public School Officials to Modify Operations
When charter schools were catapulted from a policy notion to a reality on Arizona’s education landscape in 1995, district superintendents realized that the change would affect their jobs.
- Changed by Charters, Part 1, March 27, 2002.
Part I looked at teachers’ unions’ attitudes toward these independently operated public schools of choice. While they’ve softened to the concept, the unions generally offer more benign neglect than encouragement. In Minnesota, meanwhile, a group of teachers has formed a cooperative to sell the educators’ expertise and services to districts and charter schools statewide.
The third installment is scheduled to appear in May 2002.
