THE ISSUE: Tuesday, the N.C. legislature adjourned without passing a controversial bill concerning charter school funding. The issue seems likely to be reintroduced after the legislature is scheduled to reconvene in April. Editorial board members debate the merits of the ideas in the bill.
Check out the other viewpoint here.
The N.C. General Assembly seems interested in expanding school choice and ensuring students enrolled in charter schools receive an equal amount of public funding as those in traditional schools. This is a good thing — charter schools expand choice and opportunity by allowing parents to send their children to schools that best suit their needs.
Charter schools are free of the rigid, top-down structure of public schools and are able to experiment with curriculum and policies that best fit students’ individual needs. Charter schools that fail to perform lose students — and funds — to schools that better cater to the desires of parents and students.
Parents, as taxpayers, should have the choice in what school their child attends — and where their share of state funding goes.
Disadvantaged communities especially need school choice because traditional schools in poorer areas often perpetuate the school-to-prison pipeline and lock students into cyclical poverty because of poor performance and lack of opportunity. Charter schools offer a way out.
In New York City, charter school networks such as Success Academy have created dramatic improvements in test scores for underprivileged students who had been in underperforming traditional schools. As we look for ways to increase opportunity and performance in public schools, greater school choice offers a way to give students and parents more power over their own future.
