Arguments for charter schools

My friend and fellow Democrats for Education Reform board member, Boykin Curry, wrote a letter to the editor (below) of Worth Magazine in response to an article critical of charter schools.  He makes a number of great points, but I'd argue that he doesn't go far enough -- we don't have to apologize for charter schools not doing very well and fall back on the arguments that they get less money and/or they'll get better soon, we promise.  Despite the flawed studies that purport to show the contrary, TODAY charter schools are doing BETTER than public schools -- as evidence, see the slides I've put together (posted at www.tilsonfunds.com/Personal/Charterschoolslides.pdf), especially slide #4, which shows that the majority of studies that measure schools the best way -- student gains over time -- show that charter schools ARE doing better!

------------------------

Boykin Curry's letter to the Editor

Dear Editor,

In your September article “Educational Entrepreneurs,” I am listed as founder of Girls Preparatory School in Manhattan.  While nothing would make me prouder, in fact I am one of many.  The effort was actually started by my friends Bryan Lawrence, Eric Grannis and Miriam Lewis Raccah, who recruited me and the rest of the founding board to help get the school off the ground.

On another note, the article concludes that the wide charter school effort may be in vain because, “based on test scores, charter schools’ average performance is no higher than that of public schools” and some charter schools end up closing.  The problem with this analysis is two-fold:

First, state-run schools in the study you reference received nearly twice as much government funding as the charter schools.  New York Times columnist John Tierney notes that if General Motors bragged that their $40,000 cars ran just as well as Toyota’s $25,000 cars, people would find it ludicrous.  Yet the educational establishment sees validation from the fact that charter schools can’t do better than match their schools at half the cost.  Imagine what the results would be if charter schools received equivalent funding.

Of course, parity is not the goal.  It is more important to realize that even if the average charter school is only equivalent to the average state-run school, over time charter schools will be better.  That is because the worst charter schools are constantly being closed, and the most excellent ones are growing and being replicated.  This free-market dynamic is absent for most stagnant inner-city school systems.

Airline deregulation spawned the uncomfortable People’s Express and luxurious Jet Blue, but market competition ensured that only one survived.  As a result, someone who works as a clerk at Costco today can afford to fly comfortably from New York to LA for their holiday, something that was unthinkable in the pre-deregulation 1970’s.

Great education for children is surely more important than better flights; but the defense of an antiquated, monopoly system is vigorous.

Boykin Curry

106 Central Park South  27A

New York, NY  10019