Give charter schools a broader test
Mike Chaney, the former chairman of the Senate Education Committee who is now the state’s insurance commissioner, gives a candid and credible evaluation of the current charter school law compared to similar laws in other states.
Mississippi’s, he told the Jackson Clarion-Ledger newspaper, is “the sorriest, and I wrote it.”
Lawmakers have an opportunity this session to do something about it. The current charter school law is set to expire in July. Rather than letting the concept die, lawmakers should make it easier to create them, while also holding them accountable for results.
There have been some sorry charter schools created in the country. That is true. But there are also many who have been a welcome salvation to children stuck in failing public schools.
Charter schools can have some significant advantages. They can more easily root out ineffective or incompetent teachers than is possible in the union-dominated public schools. They can insist on parental involvement as a qualification of enrollment. They can spend less time on satisfying the bureaucracy and more on classroom instruction.
When they’re done right, they also create an incentive for existing public schools to improve, because now the latter is in competition for students.
Frankly, Mississippi really doesn’t know what charter schools might be able to accomplish, because this state has never really tried to find out. It’s time that we did.
Greenwood Commonwealth Editorial
1/13/9
Magnolia Tribune
