Posted on by Californiacontrarian

Kids Win

 

In a major decision on 11/7/17,  the LA Unified Board of Education averted a showdown with five charter school operators, who subsequently said in a joint statement, “Today shows that when charter schools and the district work together, kids win. We are proud to have stood up for policies that will have a major impact on our students and teachers.”

The compromise decision involved renewals for 15 established L.A. charter schools and the launch of three new charter schools. The school district staff had recommended denial of all 18 for some mumbo-jumbo reason, but in the end only one renewal application was denied – that because of academic performance shortcomings. Very surprising to me is the fact that there are 224 charter schools in the L.A. Unified system, and this is more than any other school district in the nation.

 

When I looked into the status of charter schools in San Diego County, I was surprised again. In 2017 there are 124 charter schools in San Diego County with over 69,000 students – both of these are significantly improved compared to 2008-9 when there was 73 charters with 38,680 students. At this time approximately 20% of the students in the San Diego Unified School District attend a charter school, and this is projected to increase to 30% over the next decade. Not unexpectedly some of the inner city public schools are loosing students to charter schools, and as a consequence are revamping their modus operandi to become more like some “independent study charters” that combine classroom based instruction with computer based programs.

All of this is good because this competition is forcing the public schools to up the ante, and the result is kids win!

 

 

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