Charters have become very popular in Minnesota and around the country with low income people who have the fewest options in public education. Both in St Paul and in Minnesota, charter public schools serve a higher percentage of low income and people of color than do district schools.
A variety of folks are creating charters because they are frustrated with district schools. For example, parents in the St. Paul area have created charter schools that * offer Montessori education at the high school level, because local districts do not do this * are offering an arts focused high school, because local districts have not created such a school that is open to all kinds of students * offer bi-lingual programs after most local districts did not do that. I personally witnessed a local district site council reject ALL of the recommendations - some of them excellent - from a group of Hmong parents who attended - because the principal and faculty already had decided how they wanted to spend every cent of the more than $130,000 in compensatory education dollars - dollars that came to the district, in part to help it deal with Hmong and other students who do not speak English in the home. Some of these parents later set up a charter because the school in question, despite having more than 25% of its students from Hmong families, did not have a single person in the office who spoke their language. This was one of the parents' requests - for a portion of those dollars. There are some fine district public school programs - but many parents are frustrated. And by the way, there are some outstanding charters from which districts could learn a great deal. It is interesting that a note tonight refers to the "dark side" of the charter movement, and seems to equate dark with negative. Dark is not necessarily negative - see Langston Hughes wonderful poetry praising dark. But one of the forms of racism in this country is the way dark often is equated with negative - ie black ball, black day, dark side. Our Center has helped people over the last 15 years improve district public schools and start and improve charter public schools. One of the reasons people start charters is that they do not want to send their children to schools where dark is viewed as dangerous or negative. Joe Nathan Highland Park & Center for School Change Humphrey Institute _____________________________________________ To Join: St. Paul Issues Forum Rules Discussion Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ____________________________________________ NEW ADDRESS FOR LIST: [email protected] To subscribe, modify subscription, or get your password - visit: http://www.mnforum.org/mailman/listinfo/stpaul Archive Address: http://www.mnforum.org/mailman/private/stpaul/
