TO THE EDITOR:
Gov. Bev Perdue should veto any attempt to allow more charter schools in our state. Before going down such a path, North Carolina needs to recognize what a long-run dead end charter schools are.
In looking at situations where charter schools have existed for longer times, a number of studies have shown that students out of charter schools in general are less successful than those from traditional public schools.
New York’s experience with charter schools has been extensive with regular evaluation. Yet another report recently done by Bruce Baker and Richard Ferris shows that charter schools are not outperforming New York City public schools. They find that per-pupil funding at New York’s public schools is far less than at most charters; thus the public schools are doing as much, and sometimes more, with less. An additional finding is that the student population at charters is less poor and has fewer academic challenges than students enrolled in the public schools.
Continuing to put scarce resources into charter schools defies the better part of wisdom.
Nancy Elkins
Chapel Hill Resident
