James Shuls: Charter Schools are Giving Families Options

by James V. Shuls When my wife and I found out we were having a baby, we began looking for pediatricians. We wanted the best doctor and because we had choices, we were able to find a pediatrician we loved. In almost every area of our lives, we have choices, but many families do not [...]

by James V. Shuls

When my wife and I found out we were having a baby, we began looking for pediatricians. We wanted the best doctor and because we had choices, we were able to find a pediatrician we loved. In almost every area of our lives, we have choices, but many families do not have options regarding where their children are educated.

James V. Shuls

The typical public education model restricts most families from having much say in the type of education their child receives because children are sorted by attendance catchment areas. The traditional model does have school choice; but those choices are, for the most part, limited to moving to a better neighborhood or paying for private school tuition. Many families do not have these options. In Saint Louis, this is changing. Charter schools are giving more and more families educational opportunities for their children.

I recently took a tour of six of the 22 charter schools in Saint Louis and was amazed at the differences among the schools. Gateway Science Academy students are focused on developing their expertise in math and the sciences through innovative programs. Preclarus Mastery Academy students are learning Latin and preparing for college success while students at Saint Louis Language Immersion Schools are immersed in Spanish, French, or Chinese. Grand Center Arts Academy students in one class were acting out scenes they had written, while students in the next room were learning a dance routine. Students at City Garden Montessori were spread out, working on self-directed learning projects as teachers provided guidance.

Each school focuses on academics, but each also has a unique niche, offering something distinctive to students.

The conversation about schools often focuses on state achievement tests. We ask how charter schools are doing compared to the district, or how the district is doing compared to the state. Those are worthwhile questions, but schools are doing more than preparing students for tests. The schools I visited offer students something unique that may or may not translate to gains on an achievement test, such as learning a new language or developing creative skills. When we focus solely on a school’s performance on tests, we miss a big part of the picture. We miss the variety and options that these schools provide to families.

Critics of school choice often argue that families will not know how to make good choices or that students who remain behind will somehow be hurt by other students leaving. Both of these claims are unfounded. First, parents are very savvy and are capable of making choices for their children. I know nothing about the medical profession, but we were able to choose a great pediatrician. If anything, parents lack experience, but experience comes from having the opportunity to make those decisions.

Secondly, most of the scholarly evidence suggests that the traditional public schools are no worse off, and in some cases, are better when they face competition. As school choice has accelerated in Saint Louis, the St. Louis Public School District has also been improving. The district appears to be responding to the increased competition, opening innovative magnet schools, focusing on teacher quality, and exploring opportunities to improve. As they do, the portfolio of quality educational options in Saint Louis will continue to grow.

Robbyn Wahby, deputy chief of staff for Saint Louis Mayor Francis Slay, says three more charter schools are slated to open next year, and she expects that trend to continue in the foreseeable future. With more schools comes more opportunity; more opportunity means finally being able to ask, ”Which school would best meet the needs of my child and my family?” That is what school choice is really about, giving families options.

If you have not had the opportunity to visit any of these unique schools, I highly recommend you do so.

James V. Shuls holds a bachelor’s degree from Missouri Southern State University and a master’s degree from Missouri State University, both in elementary education. He is a PhD candidate in education policy at the University of Arkansas, where he has worked as a graduate assistant for Jay P. Greene, PhD, Gary Ritter, PhD, and Robert Maranto, PhD. James joined the Show-Me Institute as its education policy analyst in July 2012. James is a former teacher, having taught four years in southwest Missouri.

Comments

Victoria M. Young

March 10, 2013 at 10:55 am

I can understand how you came to the conclusions you did but disagree with the idea that “choice” is a solution to the systemic problems in education. One person’s perspective does not give the public and lawmakers all they need to know in order to stop prescribing a One-Size-Fits-All plan – such as choice through charters improves all schools. Or that a full-blown smorgasbord of charters is the free-market system we should move towards (even when it is what we are moving towards).

First let me clarify that I am not a critic of school “choice”; I am a critic of charters as a “reform” strategy.

Your assumption that “parents are very savvy and are capable of making choices for their children” is a generalization based on your experiences. I volunteered in classrooms for 11 years then saw these same kids with their families in different settings in my community.

The stupid crack head is not “savvy”; the single working mother struggling to get everything done in a 24 hour day can’t do her homework on schools, she isn’t “savvy”; the homeless but proud (and yes, I can put a face to them) can only use the library computer for limited time, no opportunity to become “savvy”; and those parents that use their children to translate have a real barrier to becoming “savvy.”

Federal education law came about to support the public education system in an attempt to break the poverty-ignorance-ignorance -poverty cycle because we believed that ALL children should have the opportunity to succeed that quality education can give them.

I’m not sure which “scholarly evidence suggests that the traditional public schools are no worse off, and in some cases, are better when they face competition” but have you heard the old Mark Twain saying “There are lies, damned lies and statistics.” However, I do believe what you see is true that as “school choice has accelerated in Saint Louis, the St. Louis Public School District has also been improving.” The reason I believe that is the fact that I believed I saw schools improving in my district at that same time – but we had no charters then. I think schools were starting to self-correct before the setback of No Child Left Behind.

For certain individuals, choice is appropriate but I believe it can all be handled through the existing public education system with magnets vs. charters and that the best choice we could make right now is to improve all existing schools by making them responsive to the needs of their current community members.

Just throwing out some food for thought.

Reply
Charles

March 12, 2013 at 9:29 am

Choice when implemented has largely led to a two-tiered system, one that benefits the rich (that often have the knowledge, education, and resources to make educated decisions on the education of their children), while the poor or the student without the parent that has such knowledge is left behind. Often times these decisions of school choice center around fairly simple ideas of what a “good school” actually is. Parents who are not well-educated often simply look at test scores as the main determining factor as to whether or not schools are high performing. Yet, as you noted this is just one factor (and I would note a easily manipulated one at that). Many parents also simply see education as only a means of receiving employment. While this sounds nice, there is much more to education (and life) than employment. Education should be about empowering and developing the individual, allowing them to critically think, engage in debate, and not simply become a good “worker” by business standards. Often times we overlook this important aspect.
Further, due to charter school marketing and the media’s love affair with the charter school movement many parents are fed false information and the false belief that any and all charters are better than public/traditional schools. This has led to the replacement of traditional public schools with charters, under the guise of better performance and better local control. But what has often been seen (specifically in Milwaukee and Chicago) has been less control of the school by the community (in fact a destruction of the “community” in many regards) whereby democratically elected school boards are replaced with private management, and where a pillar of the community and a gathering place and often a sense of pride is now replaced by several different charter schools that divide the community.
Also this does effect traditional public schools, as the new charters are often take a portion of the traditional public school building. Leading to less resources, as well as the taking out of the most motivated parents from the school system, often leaving a void in parental leadership in traditional public schools. This further leads to a decay of the public school system.
It would be nice if choice was accompanied by public ownership. The new charters should be controlled and created by the people/community, with management elected by parents. The fact that this rarely occurs is worrisome and tends to destroy community power/voice and ownership, perpetuating the idea that the individual (or one’s family) is more important and all that matters.

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