• About
  • Editorial Board
    • Staff Writers
  • Advertise
  • Join Us
  • Archives
The Wellesley News -
  • News and Features
    • Professor Phillip Levine Discusses “A Problem of Fit”
      Professor Phillip Levine Discusses “A Problem of Fit”
    • CS Department shifts CS 111 course structure
      CS Department shifts CS 111 course structure
    • WAMI and WRJ host discussion on criminalization of abortion
      WAMI and WRJ host discussion on criminalization of abortion
    • News
      • News in Brief
      • Nation & World
      • President’s Corner
      • Senate Report
    • Features
      • Alumnae Spotlight
      • Eye on Science
      • Faculty Focus
      • LGBTQIA+ Column
  • Opinions
    • Why Art Basel is partially responsible for Miami’s gentrification
      Why Art Basel is partially responsible for Miami’s gentrification
    • It’s time to put traditional grading to the test
      It’s time to put traditional grading to the test
    • What can the fall of Z-library teach us about textbook accessibility?
      What can the fall of Z-library teach us about textbook accessibility?
    • Staff Editorial
    • Letters to the Editor
    • The Elephant in the Room
  • Arts
    • No image
      Pentimento’s Open Mic is Like an Old Patchwork Quilt–Worn, Yet Cozy
    • No image
      Kanye’s Antisemitism Steps on his Shoe Brand
    • Lousy Realities: Luca Guadagnino (2015)
      Lousy Realities: Luca Guadagnino (2015)
    • Arts In The News
    • Reviews
    • Music Peek
    • Books Before Boys
  • Sports and Wellness
    • Student-Athlete of October
      Student-Athlete of October
    • Athletics Update Oct. 19, 2022
      Athletics Update Oct. 19, 2022
    • The Case for Body Neutrality
      The Case for Body Neutrality
    • Athlete of the Week
    • Boston Sports Update
    • The Vegan Digest
    • The SHE Corner
  • The Wellesley Snooze
    • Top 10 Girlbosses who aren’t alumnae, but I would totally believe you if you told me they were
      Top 10 Girlbosses who aren’t alumnae, but I would totally believe you if you told me they were
    • Wendy Wellesley’s Thanksgiving Menu
      Wendy Wellesley’s Thanksgiving Menu
    • The Snooze Awards for the Best Tanners of 2022
      The Snooze Awards for the Best Tanners of 2022
  • Miscellanea
    • President’s Column: The Butterfly Effect
      President’s Column: The Butterfly Effect
    • Administrators shocked to learn that students dislike being left in dark
      Administrators shocked to learn that students dislike being left in dark
    • 50 Lies You Tell Yourself in Order to Survive Until Graduation
      50 Lies You Tell Yourself in Order to Survive Until Graduation
    • The Dose
    • The Olive Branch
    • Multimedia
      • Galleries
      • Infographics
      • Videos
By Tabitha Wilson OpinionsNovember 2, 2016

Charter schools serve their administrations, not students

Photo courtesy of The Huffington Post

The expansion of charter schools in Massachusetts should not be authorized because they have failed many children while escaping  review and scrutiny. As long as charter schools receive public funding, they should not be able to operate in the same manner as a private entity. Charter schools most frequently appear in low income urban neighborhoods, with almost 60 percent of attendees living in these urban areas. Their proposed mission is to help underserved students achieve their highest potential by providing an alternative to the public school system. The differences between public and charter schools include a lack of teachers’ unions and governing structures,  longer school days and various non-traditional enrollment methods. However, both systems receive funding from the same source, creating a divide that eventually fails to support the students that enroll in charter schools

Charter schools do not aim to serve all children and often have a rigorous selection process. In New York City, acceptance rates have dropped to an all-time low of 28 percent, rivaling that of nationally ranked universities. The application process can include essays, exams and interviews with both the student and family. Charter schools specifically select the students and families that they know will perform well. As a result, they can inflate their performance. However, this criteria is detrimental to most applicants who do not yet  have the skills required for admission or whose families do not fit the bill of charter school engagement. A student could perform well on the academic portion of a charter school application, but if their family is unable to commit time to the school, they may be rejected. Charter schools often employ parents as volunteers, using them as activists to hold rallies at various city halls and state senate houses. In January 2016, 1,000 charter school parents from the New York metro area attended a rally at the state’s capital of Albany to promote legislation in favor of charter schools. This constant cycle of selecting the right applicants helps charter schools survive and thrive. As a result, many believe that charter schools are better than their public counterparts.

Even though charter schools select high-performing students to bolster their statistics, students who are found to underperform are in jeopardy of expulsion. Unlike public schools that are accountable for every student regardless of performance or ability, charter schools can expel students freely at will. Although private and parochial schools have the power to expel students, they do not receive government funding. It is a waste of government funds to allocate money to charter schools that will eventually expel students back into the public system. It would be more efficient to simply allocate all funds to public schools. If charter schools selectively accept and reject students, they are no longer serving students. Instead, they seek to serve themselves and lose sight of the goal of education. In a fair amount of cases, charter school networks have been found to be corrupt, falsely increasing numbers of enrollment to increase government funding. Because they are not held accountable, corruption within charter school system is only discovered after years of damage and negligence to students.

A fundamental feature of charter schools is that they lack teachers’ unions. This results in teachers working an increased amount of hours, as the charter school day is longer than the public school day by almost two hours. Teachers’ jobs and pay are decided at the whim of the principal or whomever runs the specific charter school organization. In addition, they face high termination rates without union protection as principals do not have to prove that a teacher is failing at their job to fire them. Therefore, teachers can be fired at any moment for any unspecified reason. The salaries that teachers receive from charter schools are dictated to them, instead of the collective bargaining that takes place when teachers are in unions. A heavy burden is forced upon teachers to perform very highly but for lower compensation than their public counterparts. The stress that these teachers face negatively impacts the children whom they are teaching. Working long hours can lead to fatigue, and the possibility of termination can lead teachers to focus on results, instead of engaged learning. Charter schools treat all those under the administration unfairly and worse than their public counterparts.

Even amidst the evidence against charter schools, many will claim that charters still function as havens to populations that are continuously underserved, mainly Black and LatinX urban children. However, these schools are not serving children properly. We should not create an unaccountable and potentially corrupt form of education in order to decrease the achievement gap between minority children and their white counterparts. Instead, we as a society should be working to better the public school system that all students have equal access to. Because charter schools reject most applicants, the applicants return fall to the same system which they rejected in the first place. If we focus on the public education of children, there will be no more need for charter schools.

Share on

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Pinterest
  • Google +
  • LinkedIn
  • Email
Previous articleSponsored content is necessary to save declining media industry
Next articleAT&T-Time Warner merger subverts free market

You may also like

Why Art Basel is partially responsible for Miami’s gentrification

It’s time to put traditional grading to the test

Banner reading this website has been seized over images of a book shelf

What can the fall of Z-library teach us about textbook accessibility?

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Email Newsletter

Sign up to receive our weekly digest in your inbox

* indicates required

Top Articles

Sorry. No data so far.

Recent Tweets

Tweets by @Wellesley_News

The independent student newspaper of Wellesley College since 1901.

Sign up to receive our weekly digest in your inbox

* indicates required

  • About
  • Editorial Board
    • Staff Writers
  • Advertise
  • Join Us
  • Archives
COPYRIGHT © 2023 THE WELLESLEY NEWS
Back to top