Forum for student expression since 1977

The Patriot Press

Forum for student expression since 1977

The Patriot Press

Forum for student expression since 1977

The Patriot Press

UPDATES

School Delayed in response to COVID-19 until April 24

 

Spring Sports seasons delayed

 

AP Tests have moved online

This error message is only visible to WordPress admins

Error: No feed found.

Please go to the Instagram Feed settings page to create a feed.

Do you agree with the state funding of charter schools?

No.

In the face of Washington’s struggling public education system, we should be focusing on the ninety-nine percent of students in public schools, not the one percent in charter schools. Due to the limited enrollment (often based on lottery) that charter schools have, very few students actually benefit from this new system.

In fact, charter schools are never guaranteed to improve education. A national study by Stanford University found that almost 80 percent of the nation’s current charter schools tested similarly or worse than regular public schools. The lack of universal standards in charter schools allows too much room for failure. As far as reforming education, they are an ineffective and expensive solution.

Furthermore, according to the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, only 12 percent of charter schools have teachers’ unions. Without the organized teachers’ union of the traditional public school districts, charter school teachers often end up receiving unfair pay, unreasonable work-hours and decreased job security.

On a logical level, the students who are truly struggling in the public school system will not be the ones who enroll in charter schools. Because charter schools require an application, the students enrolling are the ones whose parents are involved in their students’ academic life, which is often not the case for the students who really need a better education.

Investing public taxpayer’s money on charter schools, a limited enrollment system with many flaws, is not the answer to a better and reformed public school system. If we really want to improve our education system, our efforts must be directed to the public schools that serve the majority of our students.