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Thursday, February 9, 2012

Brent McKim | The many problems of charter schools | The Courier-Journal | courier-journal.com

Brent McKim | The many problems of charter schools | The Courier-Journal | courier-journal.com:

Brent McKim | The many problems of charter schools

Proponents' ads ignore failings

Recently, proponents of charter schools have been spending remarkable sums of money on advertisements designed to make our public schools look worse and charter schools look better than they really are. Before jumping on the charter school bandwagon, Kentuckians should consider these points:

Charters would divert critical funding from our public schools. At a time when the state repeatedly fails to fund textbooks for children, it would be terribly damaging to redirect crucial funding and resources away from our public schools to charter schools.

We don’t need charters. Advocates claim charters cut through red tape and empower school buildings, but in Kentucky, site-based decision making already cuts through red tape and empowers schools locally.

Our public schools are making greater progress statewide than neighboring states with charters. In fact, Stanford University found th