Charter Schools?

[SpringRain]

My dd is still too young for school, but dh and I are starting to research our options. We have a local charter school that people here recommend, but I have no idea what a charter school is. Anyone here have and info or experience with this kind of school?

[sanna]

Sizzkid,

All I know are about the charter schools in California. I don't know if there are any in Alaska.. You could look it up on the internet and see, That's how I discovered the ones in Ca., the ones I am interested in are Waldorf-inspired, of which there are 6-7 ,or so (and more coming). There are also other charter schools, such as Montessori, arts-based schools, and multi-culturally based schools. Charter schools are free, alternative schools to the public school route. They still need to meet certain state educational criteria in order to receive state funds. Althought the way they do that can be quite loose. Such as in the Waldorf charter school, they don't need to test except occassional state tests, and they can be individully contested by each parent if the parent chooses. Personally, I don't believe in testing..

One thing that I found out is that the teachers at a charter school are certified and degreed, some as in the Waldorf- inspired schools, have additional training. Also, they get paid more (by the state), as they do privately.

I do know that some have waiting lists, and some operate on a lottery system, since there is so much interest in them. Like I said, more are being created. The newer ones have less of a waiting list, etc.. The schools are usually created by a group of interested parents who go through the vigorous road of gaining the charter status, hiring teachers, finding a site, etc.. Those founding families and subsequent volunteers get first dibs in class placement for their kids (makes sense).

I am currently waiting to hear how we made out on a Waldorf- inspired charter school lottery for my son who will be attending kindergarten in the fall.

Good luck on your search!

[ladylee]

Sanna, I have a question for you. How would I find out where the charter schools are in CA? Is there some sort of state registry? Thanks-

[sanna]

ladylee,
Just do a search on charter schools in california. Then you can specify and look for your interest, ie; Waldorf-inspired or Montessori, or whatever.. They are easy to find. Good luck! If you still can't find them, I'll look it up for you!

[Alexander]

Sorry to put a damper on things.

For me, charter schools are just a way for the local educations authorities to save money, shift responsibility to parents and refuse funding to those that lower the state-wide average in the standard tests.

Not only that, but I have yet to identify a state that permits any charter school to avoid the states testing requirements and standards, so there is no possibility of avoiding the moving of the "Industial Age Education system" (that is failing obviously) into the Charter Schools (whose failure is camaflaged by various "vanilla flavourings").

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[khrisday]

Charter schools (here in California) are a partially publicly funded public school which can have any type of alternative teaching style/set-up it agrees upon.(there are also some private charter schools) Some charters are just liek an annex school, some use Montessori methods, Waldorf methods, some are co-ops which require parent participation, some are specifically for homeschoolers. They do not receive funding for their actual building and site so many charters move from yearto year or house themselves within a church, on mobile classrooms, etc. There is a lot of controversy about charter schools, but if you are looking for an alternative to traditional classroom setting and don't have the funds for private school they can be a good alternative. One difficult thing is that because they are public schools they are open to everyone. If they receive more applications then they have spaces for, they draw a lottery (only for new students- once you are in you have a spot for the next year autoimatically). Anyway we have several nice charter schools around me.

[mommy22]

Charter schools are, in my opinion, the best thing that's happened to education for a long time. They are based on "alternative" teaching methods. This means that they must teach in a different way then the tradional teaching in public schools. They are forcing public education to stand up and look at themselves and wonder why they can't do the same job or better than charter schools. Charter schools also reley heavily on parental participation. This is due, in part, because of financial restraints and partly because it has been proven that the child benefits from such parental involvment. For those families that cannot afford private schools, which in my opinion are no better than public schools if they are still teaching in a tradional manner, charter schools are a life saver. My children have been attending a private Montessori school for 5 years, and this will be their first year as a charter school. It's very exciting that more families will be able to benefit from the Montessori method. There is hope for the future of our children!