Charter schools in Washington state

[MillCreek]

http://seattletimes.com/html/localnews/2019398866_taf11m.html

An interesting article on charter schools.  Washington state is voting on allowing charter schools.  It will be interesting to see where the vote goes.   I was unaware that the data seems to show that charters are not quite a panacea for what ails the educational system.

[MechAg94]

I am sure that private schools will have winners and losers just like everything else.  Having a choice is what seems important to me.

[Marnoot]

The charter schools around here are, with very few exceptions, superior to the regular public schools in every ranking I've looked at. They're probably a notch under private schools, but since those are out of the question financially we'll be doing the lottery at several charter schools when our oldest gets to kindergarten age.

[roo_ster]

Yep, not all charter schools live up to their promise.  And then they shut down if they do poorly enough.  That is a big deal.  "Bankruptcy & liquidation of assets" is a concept that gov't schools need to have applied to them when they do not perform.

Also, even those that only match gov't school performance, usually do it with fewer dollars per student.  Think of the inner city pits running with feral youths.  No amount of money or super-teachers are going to turn them into Lake Woebegone.

[dm1333]

They seem to be doing well in New Orleans where a large number of public schools were wiped out. 

http://www.nola.com/education/index.ssf/2011/09/new_orleans_charters_see_readi.html