Last year when my two oldest children, now 4 and 5, were starting pre-school my husband and I were ecstatic. I remember loving school and I just could not wait for my children to start sharing their experiences with me. Well now, just a few months later, it is time for us to start thinking about Kindergarten and the amount of decisions, preparations and things to take into consideration seems insurmountable. Any time I run into a fellow parent at the grocery store or we meet up for play dates the only topic we can discuss is what plans we’ve made for next year, where we are zoned, and what schools we have applied to. The truth is, none of us really know what we are doing. During the first days of January my husband and I rushed to fill out the applications for the three charter schools in our area where we wanted our children to be considered. These schools will have a lottery drawing and let us know if our children have been selected for slots sometime between February and March. Well this past Saturday our kids were invited to a birthday party where again the topic of next years school choices was brought up and my husband mentioned we were waiting to hear back from the drawing for the charter schools before considering other options. Another mom turned to us nodding her approval and asked what the difference was between public and charter schools and my husband and I turned to look at each other expectantly. At that moment we both realized that we were had applied for and were waiting on something with no idea as to why. How would attending a charter school benefit our children more than attending a public school? So far this is what I’ve learned.
Charter schools are funded by tax dollars in the same way public schools are but they are allowed to establish their own standards of conduct and curriculum. These schools are generally outside the bounds of traditional educational oversight by the state and instead are usually governed by a board of directors. Because of this freedom every Charter school is different and boasts different programs that students may benefit from. Just being a labeled a Charter school is not reason enough for us as parents to go jumping through hoops trying to get our children in. Instead it is our job to research the programs, curriculum and the benefits each individual school offers. Had we done this from the beginning my husband and I could have saved ourselves the time necessary to fill out one of the three charter school applications.
https://www.greatschools.org/gk/articles/public-private-charter-schools/