Christopher Lu
Mr. Moran
AP Rhetoric
11 November 2014
Charter Schools A charter school is a publicly funded independent school established by teachers, parents, or community groups under the terms of a charter with a local or national authority. They are free from most rules and regulations governing conventional public schools and they are accountable for results. For example, if a charter school produces subpar alumni’s, then they would close due to lack of enrollment. The first charter school was founded in 1992 in Minnesota. Shortly after their beginnings, charter schools have spread throughout the country. According to the Center for Education Reform, an organization that advocates for charters, there were over 5,000 charter schools…show more content… Most people disagree with charter schools because they seem to exclude poor performing students and have varying regulations. Students who do not “make the grade” are often shown the door. One way or another, kids who don’t do well at a charter school leave and return to the few non-charter schools that would accept them. This leaves the non-charter public schools to pick up the pieces and continue to compete with those charter schools. Furthermore, Charter school regulations vary greatly from state to state as do state-level achievement tests, which makes it difficult to compare school results or draw conclusions on a national basis. Parents who choose charters are often drawn to their small size and personalized learning environments, often without regard of what the numbers say about the academic performance of the school. However, there are also many benefits of the charter school system. Charter schools allow educators to try new teaching methods and also allow already advanced students to excel even further. They allow educators to try new teaching methods and allow for students to develop under new educational styles. Charter schools are often released from the shackles of regulations that many public schools are under. With fewer regulations educators can come up with innovative teaching methods that may boost graduation rates and lead to higher college enrollment numbers. These new methods could also eventually be adopted by regular public schools. Also, charter schools provide an environment similar to that of a university. Students attending these schools are often introduced to students of the same caliber and motives. This creates friendly competition, thus causing students to strive to be the best that they can possibly be. Charter schools are comparable to universities in the sense that students who come from charter schools tend to be more competitive due to the environment