Charter Schools have been around for many years but just in the past few decades have really become a topic of conversation with their connection to voucher programs as a possible solution to educational inequities. Charter schools are privately run schools that receive funding from the public, meaning that while they receive similar funding to public schools, they are not run by any school district and do not follow the same curriculum, standards, etc.. Charter schools began popping up in the 1980s but did not become popular in the United States until the mid-2000s after receiving endorsements from President George Bush under the No Child Left Behind program. The idea behind charter schools was to give parents more choice in their student's education as the curriculum is often more tailored to the students, teachers are given much more freedom in their educational decisions, and parents do not have to worry about being in a specific school zone to attend. School Vouchers go hand in hand with this idea of offering parents more choice in their children's education and are typically implemented together with charter schools in areas that adopt the system. The goal of these programs overall is to
A teacher assists elementary students with coding app on their computers at a charter school in California |
While on the surface, this system seems like it would be beneficial in holding schools accountable and making sure that everyone has access to a good education, there are many factors that make this system heavily biased and many examples of how these biases have made these systems a failure time and time again. Some of these issues are outlined below.
- Not all students have access to educational institutions due to a lack of transportation
- This system benefits families who have access to reliable transportation
- Vouchers may not cover the cost of charter schools or private schools near the student
- This system benefits families who are able to afford to cover the remaining costs
- Charter schools have the ability to implement selective admission processes meaning that they can choose which students to admit while public schools are forced to accept all students
- Lower performing students and minority students are often highly underrepresented in Charter schools
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