Losing Control of Schools

classroomThere are many reasons to love charters and to loathe them.  One of the biggest conundrums is over local control.  Some parents think schools are too rigid in their regulations.  While trying to be efficient and fair to all, school systems can seem to be inflexible.  Enter charter schools.  Each can set up their own procedures more or less.  Their advisory boards and/or their management companies set the rules.  If parents are unhappy, they can leave. Of course finding a school to suit them might be a challenge.  Consider the situation in Detroit, Michigan.

 

 

Parents were called to their charter school two weeks before classes began.   The YES charter high school management company, New Paradigm, alerted parents the school would not open this fall.  Students had two weeks to find another school.  The charter staff gave them a list of six schools they could try.

Privately run charter schools take public money, but they do pretty much what they like.  They win and parents lose in this system.   YES high school served mostly black, inner city children.  Perhaps the parents could not raise enough money on their own to satisfy the management company.  The state resources may not have been enough.  They are not saying.  No one outside of the school was allowed to go to the meeting.

 

Posted in Charter School Management, Michigan.

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