Why do you supposed that parents choose to send their children to charter schools?

[LoZoccolo]

[TheMadMonk]

1. Because they are under the impression they are better. /nt

[glinda]

3. Yes. They don't know any better.

[SlimJimmy]

10. Over all, they fair no better than public schools, but there are some

that do quite well.

College acceptance: All 107 members of the Urban Prep charter school's first graduating class got into a four-year college this year.

In Chicago, the graduation rate for African-American boys is about 40 percent, and only about half of all students are accepted to some form of college. The chances of young black men going to college – particularly young men from the poorest neighborhoods – are not good. But the Urban Prep charter school, located in the city's tough Englewood neighborhood, has produced a very different statistic. In March, this school, which is made up of young African-American men, announced that all 107 boys in its first graduating class have been accepted to a four-year college. Just 4 percent of those seniors were reading at grade level as freshmen.


http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Society/2010/0408/Inner-city-Chicago-charter-school-has-perfect-college-acceptance-rate

[Fumesucker]

2. They hate their kids and want them to be in the worst school?

Parents are possibly even easier to manipulate than the average person if they really love their kids (ie most of them).

[Blue-Jay]

4. To keep them away from people like you.

[pnwmom]

5. Because they're not supporters of cookie cutter education.

Because they don't like their assigned school.

Because they like the mission of the charter school.

There are probably as many reasons as there are families.

[goddess40]

6. depends on the charter school and the set up

In my city we have charter schools set up by the public schools to service kids that don't do well in the traditional setting. We haven't had an expulsion in several years and our graduation rate is up.

In Milwaukee it's a different story, the public schools are over crowded and underfunded. The rest of the state send money from their budgets to fund the charter schools there and parents think they must be better - but there is zero accountability and the schools are crap.

[proud2BlibKansan]

7. To collect $200

or a Wii.

Those are incentives given to kids who enroll in charters in my city.

[salin]

13. have never heard of such a situation. Is that legal?

I would be interested in reading documentation about such a practice.

[proud2BlibKansan]

15. Don't know if it's legal or not.

But I would imagine it is since charters get to write their own rules.

[salin]

24. Charter school laws are written at the state level... the degree to which

"they get to write their own rules" is based on what the state legislatures legislate - or don't legislate.

Find the use state dollars to bribe enrollment - pretty awful. Stealing dollars from the classroom -the multitude of ways this is happening in these days is appalling.

[madfloridian]

17. Here's some documentation....happens all the time.

Charter school offers to give $100 to each student who recruits someone new.

"Evoking the old “Wanted” posters of the Wild West, the flier asks for help to “recruit students who you feel would benefit from the exceptional opportunity to attend Believe Schools in all grades.” It promises $100 for each student recruited, provided they enroll and “remain for at least one term with us!” (The same picture also turned up Tuesday night on Education Notes Online.)

Jacqui Lipson, a spokeswoman for the schools, declined to comment but did not deny that the sign was up."

There's a picture of the sign.

Is it legal? Doesn't matter if you are a charter school. Legal doesn't apply.

[salin]

22. foolish for those schools.

get $100 bucks, but your child can't get a copy of a couple of text books (that is - the equivalent cost lost).

If those schools aren't performing, than they should be closed down - as is one of the premises behind charter schools.

[madfloridian]

20. Dupe..delete

[seabeyond]

8. i sent my kid to private for two reason. i was convinced thru hype public schools academically poor

and it was full of bullies. since i had a serious, intellectual, slim, glasses wearing, articulate, non aggressive son, i chose private. the only privates are christian. i chose the highest academic, yet least snobby private.

he went until nov of fourth grade. i concluded why he was doing so well in the school was not the efforts of teachers, but him. the school lacked the academics of the public. and the bullying was worse.

pulled kids out of private and have been thrilled with public. he is now sophomore.

a reason why one may chose other than public.

[Hello_Kitty]

9. In Arizona it's so their kids will go to school with other white kids. eom

[DonCoquixote]

11. I am aware

That many parents want to use charter schools as a means of
A) keeping their kid in a religious cocoon
B) trying to give them some sort of edge

However, there is a reality we need to have an answer for. Some schools have been so patently poor run that they are outright unsafe. I say this as a former substitute teacher that found out one of the kids I knew got raped in the men's room. We have to be able to give an answer to parents that genuinely feel that the school system has failed them, especially the Minorities that have been targeted by the charter school movement.

[madinmaryland]

12. We had our daughter in a charter school for one year.

We lived in Bridgeport, CT. There was a serious difference (positive) from the city school she was in during kindergarten as compared to first grade. The "charter school" in Bridgeport actually provided an education very similar to the education she has been getting in public schools here in Maryland.

We moved to Maryland before she started second grade.

[Karia]

14. As a parent

I can attest to the hard sell techniques the recruiters for the charters use. They really work at trying to make you feel like an idiot and bad parent if you are not sending your kids to their charters.

I'm delighted with my child's diverse, urban, neighborhood public school. By NCLBA criteria, it is a "failing school" but that is nonsense. The teachers are awesome and because of them my child is getting an equivalent or even better education than her friends in nearby suburban & private schools.

[roody]

16. smaller class sizes---smaller schools

[The Straight Story]

18. My daughter is home schooled through one

She has also been in public school, and for a short time a charter school (not home school one).

Overall we like the flexibility, how she can move ahead faster (she can work at her own pace), and basically the freedom to have control over her entire school experience.

If my X is ill and cannot do school in the morning, I can when I get home. We are not chained down by schedule and she is not chained down either as she can easily work through lessons/tests/etc and move ahead and learn more.

I like choice. You want public school - fine with me. Private/religious/home/etc - I am all about choice and making sure people are free to have it.

[Electric Monk]

19. So they could hopefully compose a better sentence than "Why do you supposed that parents choose..."?

nt

[leftstreet]

23. ...

:spray:

[proud2BlibKansan]

25. lol

[blondeatlast]

27. ...

:rofl:

[Pisces]

21. 18:1 student/teacher ratio, spanish, p.e, art, 1 week off for Thanksgiving.

Many reasons. Not all are good, but the good ones kick ass over public. They are hard to get into and there is no incentive to get in( none needed people are banging the door down).

100's apply for very few spaces.

[LooseWilly]

29. Is the 18:1 student/teacher ratio a requirement somewhere? Link?

Sounds like a spot of anecdotal evidence (well, conclusion drawn from some unprovided anecdotal evidence, technically)...

I know I taught a class of only about a dozen students for nearly a month as a substitute— in a public middle school. I'm certainly not going to try to use that fluke as justification for saying that public schools have a 12:1 student/teacher ratio though.

(As an aside... that was one of the few classes where I was able to do any teaching, as a substitute, because the class size was so low that those who were behind couldn't hide amidst the crowd and fuck around doing other things rather than be noticed as knowing, or not knowing, what was going on. Public or private, get those class sizes down and the teachers will be able to bring the kids up to speed and then get them all advancing... well, all the ones that have any talent in the subject matter. Not everyone is able/willing to deal with calculus.)

[Obamanaut]

26. Perhaps they've heard rumors about failing public schools, or were disheartened

by NCLB or the newer Race to the Top and they want to try something different.

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

28. I know a couple who do,

Simply because some of the schools in Santa Ana California are among the worst in the entire state.

I don't blame teachers for the state of public schools, but I don't blame parents for pulling their kids out either.

[Hannah Bell]

30. many reasons. why do you suppose there's a single reason?