Please consider my letter as a response to Paige MacPherson’s letter published on Sept. 8 titled “Charter schools could bring diversity, savings to N.L. public school system.”
As a former teacher who has taught in the public system as well as in a district that allowed charter schools, I feel it important to point out that like most things the devil is with the details when considering charter schools. While Paige MacPherson paints a rosy picture of charter schools is important to know all the facts.
When I taught high school one of the most important lessons I could pass on is for students to understand the source of information and make judgement around the intent of information being presented. MacPherson is writing for the Atlantic Institute for Market Studies (AIMS) a conservative think tank that promotes free markets. Apparently having an education system based on the free market is now one of their priorities. It’s worth noting that this is the view of Betsy DeVos, U.S. President Donald Trump’s Education Secretary and large proponent of charter schools. This doesn’t preclude MacPherson from having an opinion on education but it’s helpful to know her background and make your own mind up about bias.
MacPherson points to the data surrounding the success of Alberta’s charter schools when it comes to school performance. To start, there are 23 Charter Schools in Alberta, however only 13 are listed in the research on performance from the Fraser Institute. Why the other 13 schools aren’t included I’m not sure, but it’s helpful to know if you are going to use that data to support the effectiveness of charter schools it should be noted that half of the charter schools are not included. It should also be noted that long term research on charters in the U.S. show slightly higher scores in reading and math in elementary schools, however they show lower scores in high school and overall the majority of charter schools perform about the same or worse than public schools. (Center for Research on Education Outcomes Study, 2009)
It is often students with disabilities who are left out of the charter school wave. We also need to consider what happens to students with behavioural issues or who are struggling with discipline. Charter schools can simply remove them from school and send them back to public school. This is an option not afforded to public schools as they are mandated to educate all students and can’t simply abandon the students they cannot handle.
While MacPherson does touch on the subject of controlling for social economic status within the schools some important details are left out. While charter schools by law are supposed to be open to all students there are some interesting limits to that policy. For example of the top four performing schools in Alberta, two require students have an IQ of 130+ to be considered for acceptance (placing them in the top 2 per cent in terms of cognitive ability), one requires parents to enroll their children in expensive private Suzuki violin classes outside normal school hours which also require a significant parent commitment as well, and the fourth has a special education policy that only states “Aurora is a school for students of at least average ability whose parents value education…” which I think we can all read between the lines to what that means. In short it’s no wonder that their achievement scores are elevated.
Finally, as touched on above, most of the charter schools do not have dedicated special education staff.
The cost savings are significant and perhaps one of the reasons they can brag about how they provide quality education using less money and that charter schools offer savings to the public system. It is often students with disabilities who are left out of the charter school wave. We also need to consider what happens to students with behavioural issues or who are struggling with discipline. Charter schools can simply remove them from school and send them back to public school. This is an option not afforded to public schools as they are mandated to educate all students and can’t simply abandon the students they cannot handle.
We absolutely need to think of ways to improve our school system but essentially privatizing our school system using public funds will benefit some students but in all likelihood harm our public schools and place certain students at a disadvantage.
David Banfield
St. John’s
