The governor’s effort to expand charter schools would come at the expense of the public schools. It is not surprising that some charter and private schools have high academic achievement scores. Enrolling in them requires parent involvement and investment in their children’s education- factors highly correlated with achievement in any educational setting. Charter and private schools can control which children are enrolled in their programs.
In my experience as a school psychologist in the Anchorage School District, I saw students with disabilities, behavioral issues, and a need for bilingual education being referred back to the public schools as soon as teaching them became challenging. Until charter and private schools accept all comers, as the public schools must, comparing their achievement scores to the public schools’ results is meaningless. Our public schools deserve increased funding to meet the educational needs of all students before increasing funding for charter schools that serve a select population.
— Christina Tower Zafren
Anchorage
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