Charter School Ripple Effect

Joe Williams describes what happens when charter schools bring choice to a school district:

Like stones cast into the public education waters, charter schools create ripples that can affect conventional public schools nearby. In large part driven by an aggressive, customer-service approach to education, charter schools engage parents, teachers and students in a partnership focused on improving achievement. Enlightened school districts have taken notice.


For example, Thomas County, Georgia, school district opened its own charter school, the Bishop Hall Charter Schools, with small group instruction and individualized attention, and saw graduation rates increase by more the 20 percentage points within two years. Or note how Indianapolis Superintendent Eugene White describes the external motivation from charters to improve: “We will now find new ways to create better educational options and opportunities.”

School districts without public school choice are de facto education monopolies – parents and children of limited means are forced to take what’s available without recourse. Challenged by competition, however, schools push to help students flourish. Examples of such stories provide the inspiration and hope parents desperately want for their children’s education experience. They’re tired of the obstacles and opposition to charter schools, often at the hands of local school boards, district offices, bureaucracies, and teachers unions that have a vested interest in maintaining the status quo – an education system more focused on protecting jobs than student achievement.

That is why charters are flourishing and why traditional public schools are doomed.