charter schools

Charter schools are publicly funded schools that have a "charter" or contract with the school district to meet certain performance requirements, but they are intentionally designed to operate independent of the school district. The idea is to provide a publicly funded alternative to traditional education in "government schools."

There's lots of information on the web, as charter schools are part of the education reform movement. Two popular sources of information and discussion promoting the idea of charter schools are the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools and US Charter Schools.

There are organizations that help organize and launch charter schools, and there are even some virtual charter schools.

Charter schools have been shown to be very successful in many areas, but since they're government funded, they're subject to the whims of politics.

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Latest blogosphere posts tagged “charter schools”

• Article on BASIS Charter in the Sunday Star

  
  Blog For Arizona — Authority: 511
  by David Safier The Stars Timothy Steller has been working on an article about BASIS Charter School, which is set to appear in the Sunday paper. BASIS has a very strong -- and most probably well deserved -- reputation for educational excellence. But like other charter schools in the state, its hard to peer into its ...
  1 day ago

• The Explosion of Charter Schools in America

  
  Kentucky School News and Commentary — Authority: 434
  This from US News and World Report :
  2 days ago

• Charter schools not part of Ky.s Race to Top

  
  Kentucky School News and Commentary — Authority: 434
  "Our application will not have any provision for charter schools in it because we dont think there will be adequate time or support in the legislature by the deadline were facing," --Terry Holliday This from Jim Warren at H-L: Advocates for charter schools had hoped the lure of federal funding might ...
  2 days ago

• NY’s budget crunch: charters can help

  
  E3 (Excellent Education for Everyone) — Authority: 126
  By BENJAMIN GEYERHAHNThe New York PostWhy is the Legislature strangling the growth of public charter schools?Charters cost taxpayers less than traditional public schools, and charter-friendly policies could attract hundreds of millions of dollars in Race to the Top funding from the Obama administration. And New York ...
  2 days ago

• UFT applies pressure to a charter school balking at pay raises

  
  GothamSchools Newsroom — Authority: 597
  Frustrated by two years of contract negotiations, the city’s teachers union is pressuring a unionized Queens charter school to make a deal. United Federation of Teachers president Michael Mulgrew and other union officials held a news conference in front of Merrick Academy-Queens Public Charter School today to ...
  3 days ago

• Strike against the RTT application

  
  Flypaper — Authority: 598
  Many of us complained that the final RTT application was not as strong as the draft version. One area of concern was charter caps. Originally, caps were a nonstarter but in the final regulations, this was eased and only certain types of caps became verboten. So did this small change have any real impact? Yes, ...
  3 days ago

• New York State Says English-Learners Arent At-Risk

  
  Learning the Language — Authority: 125
  New York state education officials have decided that a charter school in New York City cant give preference to English-language learners in admissions because such students arent technically "at risk," according to a story published yesterday by GothamSchools. State law urges charter schools to focus on students "at ...
  3 days ago

• My Son Progresses To Straight A’s

  
  Personal Blog of Justin Germino — Authority: 128
  My son had entered a charter school called Legacy Charter School earlier this year which is more advanced than the public elementary schools around here in Casa Grande, Arizona. With first graders already working on 2nd grade math and my son being a tad younger then the rest of the students he was having some trouble ...
  3 days ago

• Debate of NYC School Space Continues

  
  NYC Private Schools Blog — Authority: 131
  The debate over using public school space for charter and private schools in NYC has been steadily building, quite literally. The NYC Public School Parents Blog carried a recent article with some very stinging arguments and points about wealthy patrons funding and creating specialty charter schools in NYC.It ...
  3 days ago

• Charter for Heron Bay Academy Approved

  
  New Homes Section Blog — Authority: 124
  Located in Henry County,  Heron Bay Academy received the news they were hoping for. The new Academy has been  approved by the Georgia Charter School Commission to begin construction on the charter school. The school will be located within the master-planned community of  Heron Bay Golf  & Country Club in ...
  4 days ago

• Alabama to consider charter school law

  
  ADF Alliance Alert — Authority: 533
  TuscaloosaNews.com : "Gov. Bob Riley will ask the Legislature to pass a charter school law to boost Alabama’s chances at getting some of the $175 million in federal stimulus money that will be competitively available beginning next month.The conservative Alabama Policy Institute backs the idea of charter schools. ...
  4 days ago

• QUICK Hits

  
  The Quick and the Ed — Authority: 558
  Should banks stay in the student loan business? Secretary Duncan weighs in. (Wall Street Journal) Which state now has the most ambitious version of a “smart cap” for charter schools? (Detroit News) What do you have to do to get tenure in L.A.? Apparently not much. (LA Times) What can graphic novels teach ...
  4 days ago

• New AZ anti-tenure laws and New Orleans

  
  Blog For Arizona — Authority: 511
  by David Safier Ive written posts on BfA condemning the new law that cut the heart out of teacher tenure in Arizona. My most recent column in the Explorer is on the same topic. A number of newspaper editorials and op eds have chimed in as well. But I havent seen anyone looking beyond the anti-tenure law itself to ...
  4 days ago

• Toast To ReidCares Demise (Why the left should be happy it failed)

  
  Stupidica — Authority: 177
  Toast To ReidCares DemiseShikha Dalmia, 12.16.09, 12:01 AM EST **SNIP** If the left wants to take an incremental yet principled way forward, now that the Medicare buy-in is all but dead, it ought to take guidance from the school choice movement. Many free-market advocates (like me) believe the best way to improve ...
  6 days ago

• Imagine Schools: When is a non-profit a for-profit?

  
  Blog For Arizona — Authority: 511
  by David Safier Im back on the Imagine Schools story, which Ive never really let go of but havent written about lately. Theyve been in the news recently in Indiana, Texas and Florida, but Im the only one looking at them here. (Imagine Schools is a Virginia corporation that runs 70-something charters across the ...
  6 days ago

• Richardson opposes new charter school moratorium

  
  What's The Word with Peter St. Cyr — Authority: 425
  Gov. Bill Richardson accepts the NEAs Education Governor of the Year award in July, 2009 Governor Bill Richardson announced -- on Saturday --that he will oppose any efforts to slow down the growth of charter schools in New Mexico. Additionally the governor is preparing a legislative proposal, for the 2010 ...
  6 days ago

• The Education Wars II--New Orleans

  
  Random Thoughts from Random Places — Authority: 147
  While New Orleans teachers are being fucked over, principals, who typically are too stupid or unethical to be in a classroom, are pulling down big bucks in these charter schools, just like "executives" : Now in control of their own budgets, many New Orleans charter school boards have invested heavily in school ...
  6 days ago

• Cool Charter School Map

  
  Jay P. Greene's Blog — Authority: 531
  (Guest Post by Matthew Ladner) Cool charter school map from U.S. News and World Report .
  1 week ago

• An IPI Christmas: Feeding The Hungry, Bringing Opportunity to Developing Nations

  
  American Conservative Daily — Authority: 463
  Last night I was invited to attend a Christmas get together sponsored by the Illinois Policy Institute . This year’s theme was feeding the hungry in Africa and bringing economic freedom to developing nations. We heard some interesting presentations from Paul Wormley of the One Acre Fund as well as Tim Probasco of ...
  1 week ago

• The Education Wars IV: Those Cheating Charters

  
  Random Thoughts from Random Places — Authority: 147
  Just because public school districts can be corrupt doesnt mean charters cant be, either : A state investigation has concluded that staff engaged in "pervasive, systemic cheating" on MCAS tests at a Springfield charter school where scores skyrocketed last spring, the states commissioner of elementary and secondary ...
  1 week ago

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