The Appeal of Charters
I can certainly see the appeal of this charter school initiative.
We have all come to see that district-level rules and bureaucrats are the real impediment to reforming our schools so they serve students better. Charter schools go around that impediment by working outside those structures. Isn't that a good thing? I think it is. Sure, I'd like to fix the problem instead of working around it, but I'm not very optimistic about fixing the problem in my lifetime. The temptation to just bypass it is pretty strong.
It's true that a lot of charter schools, nationally, don't allow students with IEPs to enroll or refuse to serve them if they do enroll. But the Washington charter school initiative both requires charter schools to enroll students without regard to their special needs and also requires them to serve those students appropriately. The enforcement for charter schools would come from state and federal agencies and from the charter school authorizer. Failure to fulfill IEPs - by itself - could be grounds for revoking the school's charter. That's pretty good accountability and enforcement. I think it is only fair to note that a lot of Seattle's public schools don't do this. There are a lot of schools that will not accept students with special needs and, as we know, there are a lot of
We have all come to see that district-level rules and bureaucrats are the real impediment to reforming our schools so they serve students better. Charter schools go around that impediment by working outside those structures. Isn't that a good thing? I think it is. Sure, I'd like to fix the problem instead of working around it, but I'm not very optimistic about fixing the problem in my lifetime. The temptation to just bypass it is pretty strong.
It's true that a lot of charter schools, nationally, don't allow students with IEPs to enroll or refuse to serve them if they do enroll. But the Washington charter school initiative both requires charter schools to enroll students without regard to their special needs and also requires them to serve those students appropriately. The enforcement for charter schools would come from state and federal agencies and from the charter school authorizer. Failure to fulfill IEPs - by itself - could be grounds for revoking the school's charter. That's pretty good accountability and enforcement. I think it is only fair to note that a lot of Seattle's public schools don't do this. There are a lot of schools that will not accept students with special needs and, as we know, there are a lot of
