I wish SOME charter school critics would stop being hypocrites.

[sulphurdunn]

24. A very nice school

I'm sure. But my original question was to inquire about just what a charter school could do that a public school couldn't do as well or better. Your response was that too many public schools are burdened by bureaucracy and inertia. I replied that when an institution becomes that way it becomes necessary to fix it or to replace with another institution, not a proliferation of independent charter schools that are largely unaccountable to the people who pay the bills for several years. The merit or lack thereof of any particular school was never part of my concern. The idea of using public money to privatize public education was. I would have no objection to any charter school that was non-profit, under the control of a locally elected school board, met the same academic standards and curriculum requirements of a traditional public school and entered into the same continuing contracts and wage scales with teachers, administrators and support staff that are democratically determined by local school boards in consultation with local government. Those are no more onerous requirements than are required of magnet schools within the traditional school system. The idea that a charter school needs to be independent of such oversight to be creative is suspect and something for which not one scintilla of evidence has ever been presented of which I am aware.