Like every teenager knows- makeup is the best way to cover up any blemish and make things look pretty. Whether it’s lipstick or mascara, a simple flick of a wand has the ability to distract everyone from the zit on your chin with the beautiful color scheme that your eyeshadow has. However, makeup doesn’t only come in the form of blush and highlighter- but rather, we utilize many different mechanisms to distract from the real issues.
One of the latest political blemishes is the attack on public education, and moreover, that on charter schools. Critiques of the U.S. public education system have recently been coming more and more aggressive with their commentary on charter schools being allowed public funding, which has been misused by the schools in some instances. Legislators have even gone so far as to suggest completely defunding charter schools.
However, charter schools are used to the negative attention, dragging frequented controversy over the fact that they garner federal funding. A charter school differs from a public school in that it’s typically established by a group of parents or teachers, that follow a different charter, or set of rules, than otherwise established public schools do. The latter difference for most people, is clearly in violation of deserving federal funding- with the mindset of “if they don’t follow our rules, then why should they get our money?” Yet, in practicality, charter schools function very similarly to public schools, finding the most differences in educational standards, size and structure.
These accusations have only been furthered by money fraud, specifically in California. It was projected that in 2015, the state of California’s Charter Schools would lose $100 million in fraud. This predominantly is due to little federal oversight within charter schools allocation and usage of the funding. Thus, we see more and more efforts to try and defund charter schools.
Yet, this movement ignores two large issues: the positive impact that charter schools have for minority students and that the public school system doesn’t carry solutions – just more of the same problem.
Researchers at the Center for Research on Education Outcomes at Stanford found that learning gains for charter school students were larger by significant amounts for Black, Hispanic, low-income and special education students in both math and reading. Not only that, but they saw annual improvements significantly higher than their TPS counterparts, and typically had 40 days worth more of improvement in math and 28 more days in reading.
The gains that charter schools have made are significant in aiding these minorities, and are extremely necessary for educational success in urban areas. Taking away the funding from charter schools would either disband the school altogether or privatize them, neither of which are options for minority and low socio-economic students. These students would most likely be put into public schools, which unfortunately, have the same issues of misuse of federal funding.
In the 2014-15 school year, Broward County schools misused $23 million worth of Title 1 funding and a Chicago public school misspent $1.5 million dollars that was intended for minority education on after-school sports, a cheerleading camp and a new floor waxer. These are both just examples of public school’s issues, the exact same ideology that charter schools are being incriminated for.
So not only would defunding charter schools take away valuable education from low income and minority families, but it only puts those students back into a school with the same issues. Efforts should be made to regulate charter schools, not defund them, so they can continue to make a difference and not be used to distract the public from the issues within other public schools.
