Position Paper

Charter School in Kentucky

Kentucky is in the process of considering charter school laws that will allow the state to build charter schools in Kentucky. Let us first understand what constitutes a charter school. A charter school is an independent public school that operates independently of the district board of education. The charter plan is written by a group of people such as, educators, parents, community leaders, educational entrepreneurs and others. The charter plan describes the school’s guiding principles, governance structure, and applicable accountability measures. If approved, the state will fund the charter school on a per pupil basis. Charter schools are tuition-free and open to all students. In this position paper we will postulate the pros and cons of Charter Schools in the state of Kentucky. In closing I will explain my personal stance on the subject of implementing the Charter schools in Kentucky.

There are pro-advocates that support the Charter School bill in the state of Kentucky. One point made in support of the Charter school is the fact that funding for the Charter schools are provided by the parents and local community and the state. “Since funding follows the student, charter schools survive only by attracting enough parents to enroll their kids. Money is not wasted on bad schools incapable of convincing parents to enroll their children.” (Garen, 2012) Focusing on the monetary benefits of Charter schools the following statement supports the bill, “Significantly, this means charter school administrators also have far more leeway in hiring and evaluating teachers and setting their compensation and benefits. This is, in part, why the state's teachers unions are so opposed to charter schools, but also why charter schools typically operate with much lower per-pupil costs.” (Houchens, 2012) Student’s individual needs may be addressed more effectively according to one teachers experience within an established Charter School. “Class sizes are smaller than the city’s traditional public schools, where elementary the class-size limit is 25 to 32 pupils depending on the grade. Every class at Manhattan Charter is capped at 24 students, and the school has an average of 12 students per teaching adult.” (Wei, 2008)

We have addressed some of the positive effects of Charter Schools so let us now reflect on possible negative effects. With the ability to set teacher’s salaries the Charter schools may also be undermining the teacher unions. “The anti-union backers of charter schools, like the Walton Family Foundation, also support other anti-union organizations. Almost all charter schools are non-union.” (McKim, 2012) The effect that a Charter school would have on existing public schools would have a negative effect according to Brent McKim, president of the Jefferson County Teachers Association. He explains, “Charters would divert critical funding from public schools. At a time when the state repeatedly fails to fund textbooks for children, it would be terribly damaging to redirect crucial funding and resources away from public schools.” (McKim, 2012) Regarding meeting children’s needs in a Charter school setting, some children may fail in the classroom and will be expelled from the Charter school. This will not necessarily meet the need of the children that fall through the cracks of this system according to Brent McKim. He explains that Charters kick out kids who don't perform well, and yet they still perform worse than regular public schools.

In my opinion Charter school would offer individual communities the opportunity to create schools that would be curtailed to their particular needs with the ability to manipulate the curriculum. This would provide an education for each student that would be specifically tailored to ensure they will be successful in their pursuit for a career upon graduation. The monetary needs of the school would be monitored from within the school which will allow each school the ability adjust teacher salaries according to their effective skills and tenure. I feel this would in turn create more teachers that would be appreciated and would in turn strive for their students success in the school. Funding would be better utilized within the closed accountability system of the Charter School due to the parental involvement necessary for the foundation of the school. With the state funding allocated on a per pupil basis this would ensure that the funds would be used for the students and school and the charter school would strive to provide the best education for each student to keep these funds. This would not be difficult with the smaller classroom sizes and the additional teacher aids that would be available. I would vote yes for the bill to pass and allow Charter Schools in Kentucky.