More Charter Schools- Really?
October 2nd, 2012
Looks as though we have a School Board meeting coming up
October 9th on behalf of a new charter school called Mason Classical
Academy that wants to open in Naples.
To be honest with you, I have always been against charter schools because not only do they take funding away from our public schools, but they can turn these schools into a For-profit entity at taxpayers expense. That just reminded me about Amendment 8 on our election ballot. That too is a request for taxpayers money to pay for religious school education. Before you know it, we won't have any money left to fund anything with these charter schools and religious schools meddling in the pot. I guess our taxes would have to be raised then, now wouldn't they?
Mason Academy isn't the only school applying to come here to Naples either. Three more plan on opening for next fall start date. The other three are iGeneration Empowerment Academy of Naples, My Choice Collegiate Academy at Collier, and My Choice Accelerated Academy at Collier. Amongst these, Mason will be the back to basic type school, iGeneration focuses on online courses, My Choice Collegiate can get your child to an associates degree, and lastly, My Choice Accelerated will be for high risk and drop outs. All interesting enough to take a look at.
So why charter schools anyway? Why does our community think we need more schools, let alone more charter schools? Last I checked, many of the schools have less students than last year. And do we the taxpayers pay to build these schools too? Why would our School Board even consider this?
I personally think charter schools do very poorly as far as annual grades. Last year, these are some facts written about charter schools;
Florida charter schools' many F's give ammunition to critics-
Charter schools, which account for only a fraction of the state's public schools, received half of all the F's when the state handed out its annual letter grades two weeks ago. Of all the failing grades given to public schools, 15 of 31 went to charters. The charters, often billed by proponents as a superior alternative to traditional schools, were seven times more likely than regular schools to get an F in the appraisal of the state's elementary and middle schools.
So, no thanks in my book. But I must admit, our Florida public school system, not the local level, but at the legislative level, really needs to get their act together and focus better on our kids, and not on the heavy testing that we all so much disagree on. And who knows, maybe these charter schools will blow our grades out of the water? But I doubt it. I guess we'll have to wait and see.
To be honest with you, I have always been against charter schools because not only do they take funding away from our public schools, but they can turn these schools into a For-profit entity at taxpayers expense. That just reminded me about Amendment 8 on our election ballot. That too is a request for taxpayers money to pay for religious school education. Before you know it, we won't have any money left to fund anything with these charter schools and religious schools meddling in the pot. I guess our taxes would have to be raised then, now wouldn't they?
Mason Academy isn't the only school applying to come here to Naples either. Three more plan on opening for next fall start date. The other three are iGeneration Empowerment Academy of Naples, My Choice Collegiate Academy at Collier, and My Choice Accelerated Academy at Collier. Amongst these, Mason will be the back to basic type school, iGeneration focuses on online courses, My Choice Collegiate can get your child to an associates degree, and lastly, My Choice Accelerated will be for high risk and drop outs. All interesting enough to take a look at.
So why charter schools anyway? Why does our community think we need more schools, let alone more charter schools? Last I checked, many of the schools have less students than last year. And do we the taxpayers pay to build these schools too? Why would our School Board even consider this?
I personally think charter schools do very poorly as far as annual grades. Last year, these are some facts written about charter schools;
Florida charter schools' many F's give ammunition to critics-
Charter schools, which account for only a fraction of the state's public schools, received half of all the F's when the state handed out its annual letter grades two weeks ago. Of all the failing grades given to public schools, 15 of 31 went to charters. The charters, often billed by proponents as a superior alternative to traditional schools, were seven times more likely than regular schools to get an F in the appraisal of the state's elementary and middle schools.
So, no thanks in my book. But I must admit, our Florida public school system, not the local level, but at the legislative level, really needs to get their act together and focus better on our kids, and not on the heavy testing that we all so much disagree on. And who knows, maybe these charter schools will blow our grades out of the water? But I doubt it. I guess we'll have to wait and see.
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