No Child Left Behind and Charter Schools

Charter Schools: A Possible Threat to the Integrity of Public Education

 

In the United States, the idea of public charter schools first came into dialogue in the mid 1970’s, and did not come into existence until the first two charters schools were created in Minnesota in 1991. Since then, public charter schools have grown from two schools in 1991 to a staggering 5,700 with over 2.1mil students enrolled in 2012[1]. A charter school is defined as “a school, which receives public funding but operates independently” [2]. This means that essentially, public charter schools are publically funded, but privately run. Public charter schools are schools headed by groups or organizations that are under a charter (or legislative contract) with the state or jurisdiction[3]. Originally, charter schools were promoted at state levels. Individual states had, and still have, jurisdiction on whether they want to enact charter legislations that allow for public charter schools to be created and funded in their state. They were considered at the state level up until 2000, when President George W. Bush’s No Child Left Behind Act endorsed them nationally as a platform for educational reform in American public schooling.  The Act explicitly outlines the expectations and application process for public charter schools, and provides guidelines for these schools to follow. They were nationally endorsed by this Act with the hopes of being an alternative to poor performing, underfunded, traditional public schools for families in need.

In the No Child Left Behind act, it is stated that the goal of public charter schools is to assist “educationally disadvantaged and other students in meeting State academic content standards and State student academic achievement standards” [4]. Although the intent of charter schools is geared towards providing a valuable education to those in need, it mismanaged, they can enforce and introduce a capitalist driven agenda into American public schools. The misuse and mismanagement of charter schools can transform public education into an Education Industry left to be exploited by for-profit entities that seek capital gains from state charter grants, teachers, and students. I view this eminent misuse of charter schools as a detrimental threat to public education because it promotes a planned economy through education, limits student a parent involvement in their education, and treats students and teachers as human capital.

Since charter schools can be created and managed by private for-profit entities, they can be seen as future investments by those seeking to make profit from them. The No Child Left Behind Act states that charter schools can be created “in pursuit of a specific set of educational objectives determined by the school's developer and agreed to by the authorized public chartering agency” [5]. This for-profit business model in public charter schools can manifest in the school’s rearing towards a specific vocational trajectory that will benefit the businesses of its investors in the future. This can be beneficial to industries that are in need of a quick and easy source of labor. I find this use of charter schools to be problematic because it promotes a planned economy where industries use public education to create specialized work forces for their businesses, thus creating a working class that feeds directly into their industry. This practice is fueled by the exploitation of working class families that depend on these charter schools for their children’s education. Education scholar Kirsten L. Buras studies this form of exploitation in New Orleans, Louisiana public charter schools and writes about in her essay Race, Charter Schools, and Conscious Capitalism. In her report finds that students are falling victim to exploitation by tourism industries, and their education is being used as a way to steer them into working in this industry. She finds that White entrepreneurs who are seeking to profit from Black labor are perpetrating this exploitation. She uses this quote from a local poet and teacher to further elaborate on the current state of education:

Education is ground zero in the systemic exploitation of black people in New Orleans—ground zero because public schools are the direct feeder for the necessary, albeit unskilled, labor needed for the tourist-oriented economy . . . In New Orleans they are building more hotels every day. Where will the bellhops and maids come from? . . . Our schools are the way they are because the economy . . . continues to require a labor force to clean, cook, and serve. (Buras et al., 2010, pp. 66–67)[6]

 

As mentioned before, this shows how for-profit charter schools can use pubic education as a workforce training system that targets working class children. This leaves the for-profit entities with the power to create workers for their industries, and leaves students with no choice but to be a pawn of this exploitative system.

            In consideration of charter school misuse, it is important to understand how these schools are regulated by the state. The No Child Left Behind act states that charter schools are “exempt from significant State or local rules that inhibit the flexible operation and management of public schools”[7]. This means that charter schools do not have to comply with the normal state rules that regulate public education. One important rule that charter schools are exempt from is having mandatory elected school boards. Public school boards are generally responsible for school governance, financial oversight, and strategic planning. Its membership is usually comprised of elected community members and parents, but in charter schools, these board members are unelected parents or sub-contracted workers for the for-profit entity that manages the school. This absence of elected school board members means that often times school governance will not be transparent, and this could limit parent and student involvement in school decision making. This can become an issue when parents have complaints about the school curriculum, regulation, management, etc. and have no agency in making changes to the school because their interest are not represented by the charter school boards.

            Lastly, charter schools can pose a threat to public education by using its students and teachers as human capital instead of employees and beneficiaries of the school. Since for-profit charter schools follow a business model, their goal is less focused on the quality of education for their students, and more focused on capital gains from their investment. To cut costs, charter schools often recruit teachers through human capital initiatives that provide high-need schools with teachers by using alternative certification programs. To maximize profit, they get rid of veteran teachers and replace them with cheaper teachers from alternative teacher recruitment organizations like Teach for America. These teachers are usually contracted for short periods, and are replaced by new teachers after their contracts are up. This teacher recruitment process is cost efficient for for-profit schools because they are able to avoid the costs of paying tenured teachers for long periods of time. Human capital perspective of the teacher can be detrimental to charter school students because it leaves them with a sporadic and inconsistent teaching program with teachers that are only around for short periods of time. This human capital perspective of teachers and students can have a direct impact on the education of the student because they are being trained to be workers instead of students.

            Overall, when I think about the intended impact of charter schools, I can see how they can be beneficial to communities in need of better public schools. Charter schools can be a possible way to fix American public education if they are created to serve the student and not the industry. Not all charter schools are managed by businesses. There are many charter schools that are created and managed by community members that are made to cater to specific needs of a community. Schools that come out of this context can be crucial for education reform because they are centered on the needs of the community as opposed to the needs of a business.  In all, charter schools enact a positive or a negative change in American public education. On one hand, it can lead to better funded, specialized schools for families and students. But unfortunately, it can also encourage the privatization of public education in a way that it creates a system of schools instead of a public school system.