Reply #7: These paragraphs impressed me the most. [View All]

[JDPriestly]

The most complete study of charter school performance by Stanford University found that only 17% of charter schools had better test scores than comparable public schools and more than twice as many did worse. And unlike charter schools, traditional public schools accept all children, including much larger numbers of high needs students and students without the heroic, supportive parents we see in the film. In most states charters also do not face the same public accountability and transparency requirements that public schools do which has led to serious problems of mismanagement, corruption and profiteering.

Charter-school teachers are, on average, younger non-unionized and less likely to hold state certification than teachers in traditional public schools. In a word, less expensive.

As many as one in four charter school teachers leave every year, about double the turnover rate in traditional public schools. The odds of a teacher leaving the profession altogether are 130% higher at charters than traditional public schools, and much of this teacher attrition is related to dissatisfaction with working conditions.

Charter schools typically pay less, and require longer hours. But charter school administrators often earn more than their school-district counterparts. Geoffrey Canada of the Harlem Children Zone and Eva Moskowitz of the Harlem Success Academy, two schools featured in the film, are each paid close to half a million dollars.

http://www.notwaitingforsuperman.org/Issues/Karp-TeacherBashingText2010-12-10

Charters should be subject to the same accountability standards as other schools. All school receiving government money should play by the same rules when it comes to accountability.