Most charter schools, they don’t take the hardest-to-teach kids, or, if they do, they don’t keep them. And so the public schools are often in a no-win situation, because they do, thankfully, take everybody, and then they don’t get the resources or the help and support that they need to be able to take care of every child’s education.This is why parents want to get their kids into charter schools. A school which only teaches kids who are willing and able to learn, and who show up regularly, can do a much better job than one which takes every age-appropriate individual regardless of condition, attitude, or behavioral peculiarities.
In an earlier day when U.S. public schools actually did a good job, they were not dumping grounds for kids who were unable or unwilling to take advantage of what was offered. Youngsters handicapped physically or behaviorally were accommodated in schools for "special needs children."
This segregation is no longer the case, and the public schools no longer "work" very well. Do you suppose there is a causal relationship there? Of course there is.
Charter schools have become the low cost "work around" for the dysfunction of the public schools which now take anyone and do poorly as a result. Many who can afford to do so put their children in private schools which likewise do not take "all comers."
In essence, the charter and private schools have replaced the public schools of yesteryear and today's public schools have become schools for special needs pupils. No wonder parents of children with promise want their kids out of the public schools.
Earlier we documented that many public school teachers in major metropolitan areas send their own children to charter or private schools. Who is in a better position to know where a child can best learn and, more particularly, where they cannot?
