Charter Schools Offer Viable Alternative for Lower Income Households
Before drawing the wrong conclusions, we need to look more closely at the successes of Charter schools, promoted as an alternative for the lower income community.. The results of several outstanding charter schools demonstrates that lower income does not have to mean lower scores. Boston Preparatory Charter, Community Day Charter, Edward Brooke Charter, KIPP Academy Lynn, Lawrence Family Development Charter, Roxbury Preparatory Charter are all serving communities with a much higher percentage of lower income students then the 3 districts listed above. But their results on Math MCAS are much higher ranging from a 70% pass rate to a high 90% pass rate. The communities these charter’s serve are generally African American or Hispanic, many with similar language barriers found in the state’s troubled districts.
The failure of our public schools when serving lower income communities is systemic and the fallacy of reform is that there is some foundation upon which reform can be based. But when 50% of the end product of a process, especially one that is burning through $12 billion dollars annually, has failed so many for so long a complete overhaul is needed. When one speaks of reform, it brings to mind movements that change slowly using an evolutionary pace. Our country cannot wait patiently for results that show slow but steady positive increases. We must make bold and radical changes that will root out the rotting structures and replace them with new initiatives that will be measured, monitored and modified to ensure that the money that we are spending creates a better return than a 50% failure rate.
Many of those that are most affected are isolated into lower income enclaves that are neatly tucked away from the more mainstream and affluent towns and villages of the state. Many impacted believe that public education is free. At more than $12,000 per year per Massachusetts student, we, the taxpayers, should demand more. The nine year period of K through 8 will cost $108,000 per child. What we should expect at the end of that process is a young adult that can contribute to their own future and to the future of the retiring generation of tax payers. Transforming public education in the state does not only benefit the child but also benefits the society that will come to depend on these students’ future tax contributions.
