Truth should be told about charter schools

To the editor:

My goal here is not to indicate any position with regard to Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s proposals regarding education, the subject of your editorial of Oct. 30. However, I take strong issue with your apparent defense of charter schools that you focused on in that editorial.

First of all, you, and other supporters of charter schools refer to them as “public charter schools,” a phrase that on its face is a gross misnomer. They are public only in the sense that they are funded with public taxpayer dollars. However, unlike true public schools, the public plays no role in selecting the members of charter school boards who determine how taxpayer dollars are spent, nor does the public vote on charter school budgets. Every May New Yorkers vote on school board members and budgets for our real public schools. Charter schools are just an obvious example of taxation without representation. And, of course, the tax dollars going to charter schools come directly out of the budgets of the neighboring public schools.

Additionally, there are many studies that have shown that from an academic standpoint charter schools, overall, are no more successful than public schools. Of course, one could point to some charter schools that do extremely well. Similarly, there are many public schools that are just as, if not more successful. And, yes, there are charter schools and public schools that do not show a great deal of academic success. There’s no significant difference by that measure.

What is significant, and what is often left out of these calculations when people praise charter schools is the fact that these schools may, in some instances, appear to outperform public schools. But that’s because they often serve far fewer students with disabilities, and those who don’t speak English as their first language. In point of fact, charter schools keep only the students they want, and can discharge their most problematic students who must then return to local public schools that must accept all students. Just on a baseline of who these schools educate makes it clear that comparisons with public schools to begin with is blatantly unfair.

One aspect of this issue that’s been ignored for many decades is a claim made back when the debate to create charter schools first surfaced in New York State. We were told then that charter schools, free of “troublesome public school regulations,” would be able to be more innovative and be able to create new, exciting and more successful programs to achieve greater academic success. I’m still waiting to see these new and innovative programs. All I have seen are some charter schools which have gone back in time to adopt single-sex classrooms and school uniforms. Nothing new there.

It’s about time that the truth be told about charter schools.

Ken Goldfarb

Catskill