Time to take a hard look at charter schools (Letter)
Published: Tuesday, April 17, 2012, 6:00 AM
I am not in the least surprised to hear that charter schools spend more on administration than they do on instruction. Here in Michigan, I would expect that result since 80 percent are for-profit charters.
How lovely to think that charter schools’ use of our tax money not only goes for more administrative cost than spent by the real public schools but that they also spend considerably less on instruction. In some states, Arizona for one, where a former student teacher of mine taught, the pay for charter school teachers is so low that teachers qualify for whatever Arizona’s equivalent of the bridge card is. I would not be surprised if Michigan’s charter teachers were equally poorly paid.
Can you imagine why these same schools and other for-profit schools are leaping like Asian carp on a hot day in the Illinois River at the prospect of cyberschools? Talk about not having to spend for instruction and being able to pour money into a system that pays per pupil for programs requiring