Opinion: Charter school boosterism could worsen achievement gap for Alaska’s students

The governor’s growing obsession with charter schools is frightening for the future of public education in Alaska.

He believes charter schools are the best solution to the state’s low student test scores.

His favoritism toward charters means that state funding for regular public schools will not be available unless Congress supports his proposal to bypass local school boards if parents want to form new charters. This means that we do not support a permanent increase in the amount.

The governor said there has been no real increase in state aid for seven years, leaving public schools further behind in providing the quality education needed and, yes, higher test scores. Continued resistance to providing adequate support to school districts. He praises charter schools and belittles public schools as goldmines.

Gov. Mike Dunleavy believes charter schools are the future for developing Alaska’s youth into the best and brightest, and therefore argues that charter schools deserve further support and encouragement from the state. It would be too bad if regular K-12 education has to suffer until he gets what he wants – he’s writing lesson plans.

Yes, charter schools provide a great environment for some students and often specialize in specific areas of study or approaches. That’s good for those students. For others it’s not so good.

Charter schools further undermine public education by pulling the most promising students with the most committed parents out of school. Charters are not required to provide bus transportation, making it difficult for single-parent and low-income families to enroll their children in charters if they cannot afford to transport their children to and from school.

The Loving Charter is not the overriding solution to low test scores, Governor, and it is abandoning the students who are left behind.

Dunleavy supports charters by providing lifeboats for some students and letting others swim as best they can because public schools are sinking and it’s too difficult to save everyone. It is said that it can be done.

It separates potential winners and losers early on.

It reminds me of an experience I had in a Chicago high school in the 1960s.

At the time, Chicago Public Schools believed in the national trend of placing students into “tracks” based on test scores. The “smart kids” who did well on tests got the best classes, the best teachers, and earned extra credits toward their grade point average.

Schools were to enroll students in one of three tracks: “Honors,” “Star,” or “Century.” If your score is average, you are behind compared to other children.

That means students who are already excelling in school and life thanks to higher test scores, and who, in most cases, are doing more because of their engaged and engaged parents. It meant that I had a chance to study and get into university.

And what happened to the kids who weren’t enrolled in the Honors, Star, and Century tracks? Well, they had a harder time. True, we all went to the same school, but our classes were much larger. I don’t remember having team teachers like Century English. In general, not much was expected of them at school.

Thankfully, education has changed for the better in many ways since I went to high school. Gym class teams are no longer segregated, and lunchroom food tastes better (I’ve always wondered why creamy chipped beef clumps into one shiny mass on my plate). Ta).

But charter schools give me the same impression of being in the footsteps of the 1960s. Provide better educational opportunities for some, but not all. That’s what the governor sounds like when he praises charters and downplays regular K-12 school efforts.

It’s not an equal opportunity for everyone.

larry persily He is a longtime Alaskan journalist who has taken time off for federal, state, and local public policy work in Alaska and Washington, DC. He lives in Anchorage and is the publisher of the weekly Wrangell Sentinel.

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