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Charter schools provide an alternative to public school without any personal financial cost. |
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Charter schools enable parents to have meaningful input in a school’s decision-making process. |
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In Pennsylvania, most educational mandates are lifted for charter schools. A charter school's board of trustees has the ultimate authority to employ teachers who best advance the educational interests of the school as determined by the board with considerable input from parents. As a result, teachers are more effective and more committed to a school’s goals. |
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A charter school receives authorization to exist because it attempts to offer different approaches to instruction or curriculum than what the local public schools offer. This is the fundamental reason for choice. |
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Charter schools control costs more effectively than public schools. They tend to operate with 75% to 80% of the revenue per child of the local public school district. Eventually, as charter schools grow in number and enrollment, this will save taxpayer dollars. |
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Charter schools are not constrained by state-mandated curriculum requirements. (However, we must prepare students to meet state curriculum standards found in state examinations.) Therefore, resources are better focused. Interdisciplinary and other experiential approaches to curriculum design are offered without being held to the same mandates affecting public schools, which require instruction for certain periods of time in a variety of academic disciplines. |
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Charter schools may employ an exceptional individual to teach independent of certification requirements as an exception to the laws governing certification. Charters requirements state only 75% of the faculty needs to hold certification, allowing some individuals to teach who have accumulated expertise, but have not completed a state-approved certification Programme. In an application based learning environment, experience in conjunction with education provides optimized learning. All of LVA classroom teachers are certified. We strive towards 100% certification in all teaching situations (classroom or specialized). |
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Charter schools are networked into state administrative and oversight organizations. They are not left to fend for themselves. At the same time, this help is less bureaucratic and more imaginative. |
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A charter school must jump many hurdles before it can operate. In overcoming these barriers, a school’s vision becomes focused, its spirit enhanced, its commitment strengthened, and its resources carefully scrutinized and allocated. Most public schools are not built upon such a solid foundation of perseverance and dedication. |
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Most public schools must address a wide spectrum of programming that meets a continuum of real and perceived student needs. On the other hand, a charter school can narrow its focus specifically in its charter, making it more efficient and goal-directed. A charter school is not going to appeal to every parent, nor will it address all of the needs of every potential student. But that’s the point: Charter schools represent an alternative to the public school system. |
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Most charter schools understand the need to be more comprehensive in approach to education and service compared to other public schools. They often include extended day and year instruction, after-school Programmes, tutoring, extensive parent involvement, and help with the school Programmes. |
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Charter schools address an important question about government involvement in our children’s education. Public schooling is the only arena in which the government dictates actions and procedures regarding child rearing. Parents can determine how to clothe their children, what to feed them, what professionals (such as medical doctors) will provide important services, where to house them, where they may go and not go, etc. Even for our poorest parents, discretion and choice is the rule in all endeavors important to child rearing except schooling. Why is it that schooling is so much more important than these other basic needs in child rearing that a government monopoly controls what is taught, where a child attends school, who instructs that child, etc.? Charters offer parents decision-making opportunities regarding their child’s education. |
