We know there are political forces in Kansas that want to implement ALEC “free-market” type changes to Kansas education, including expansion of vouchers, “education spending accounts” and charters, and we continue to closely monitor states where these changes have been implemented. We see over and over again that they have failed. Here’s a new story out of Michigan.
“A year ago, the Free Press published an eight-day series that documented the tragic missed opportunities of Michigan’s charter experiment. Charter schools began with the promise that privately operated public schools would provide quality options for parents in cities where education was failing, as well as pressure public schools to be better in order to compete. But Michigan’s charter schools have never lived up to their promises…
“But overall, charters don’t perform much better than the public schools in their districts. They have countenanced myriad conflicts of interest among board members and operators. They have not found a good way to accommodate children with special needs, whose educations cost more than other kids’. And they have siphoned just enough children and money from public schools to leave districts like Detroit looking like half-deflated balloons: There’s still a lot of structure there, but nowhere near the support to keep them solid.”
Read more here: http://www.freep.com/story/opinion/columnists/stephen-henderson/2015/07/24/charter-schools-michigan/30645559/