hobbling charter schools

From the WSJ editorialists...

The promise of charter schools is that they'll improve student performance in return for exemptions from the staffing, curriculum and budget requirements of traditional public schools. The reality is often very different. According to a new study from the Fordham Institute, too many charter schools lack the operational autonomy they need to be effective.

The Fordham study looked at 26 states that comprise more than 90% of the nation's charter schools and concluded: "Our policy makers and school authorizers, by and large, have not fulfilled their part of the grand 'bargain' that undergirds the charter school concept: that these new and independent schools will deliver solid academic results for needy kids in return for the freedom to do it their own way."

In Connecticut, Indiana and Michigan, for example, charter school teachers must be state certified....

Teachers unions and school boards lobby politicians to impose these rules in the hope of hobbling school reformers. And the more such rules are imposed, the more the promise of charters becomes an illusion. Charters must already operate with less money, on average, than district-run schools, and they must often find their own buildings. Charters that fail can be shut down, unlike failed district schools. Charters need the freedom to succeed or fail, or we shouldn't expect them to produce better educational results.