Schools and School Districts

Most families think that they have only three choices for the education of their school-age children: a sectarian school or other form of private school that charges tuition, a free public school, or home schooling. In many states there is a fourth option: a charter school. Charter schools do not have a religious agenda and are free of cost, but they differ from the typical public school. Although charter schools are governed by the public school district in which they are located, they are free of many of the constraints imposed on other public schools in the district.

Charter schools are created to be innovative and experimental in nature and to serve as models for future changes in ordinary public schools. The classes offered by charter schools may differ in substance from classes in public schools, and the teachers may use new, alternative approaches to education. Charter schools represent an opportunity to experience a form of experimental, alternative schooling that was previously open only to students who could afford alternative private schools or who could be educated at home. Parents also like charter schools because they have a say in the school's administration.

Charter schools usually are run by a board comprised of the teachers in the school and a few of the students' parents. The board makes its own decisions on-site. Unlike other public schools, a charter school does not have to seek approval from the school district or school board before it can take action. To teach English literature, for example, the teachers at a charter school might discard the traditional texts prescribed for other public schools and assign only contemporary poetry. They might even decide that their students should study poetry by attending open poetry readings or by setting up their own regular poetry readings.

The first charter school legislation was passed in Minnesota in 1991 (Minn. Stat. Ann. §§ 120.064, 124.248 [West 1996]). Since 1991 approximately half of the states have enacted some form of charter school legislation. The details vary, but the programs share the basic goal of creating a limited number of schools where teachers may experiment with a variety of learning techniques. The schools have a high degree of independence, but they are all results oriented. Thus, each school must show a state or local governmental education agency that its students are making satisfactory progress. A state may, for example, require that students in charter schools pass a yearly achievement test to prove that they are receiving a well-rounded education.

By virtue of their experimental nature, charter schools are highly individualistic. Some schools focus on a particular area of study, such as computers, the environment, the arts, or aeronautics. A school that emphasizes computers, for instance, will have a large number of personal computers and many teachers who specialize in computer education. Other schools are designed for certain types of students, such as teenage students who have dropped out before earning their high school degree.