It hurts the charter movement when there are weak branches of these schools
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This might not have been the laudable conclusion that the backers of three new charters reached when they withdrew their applications on Friday to open their doors in the coming year. But it is the praiseworthy result.
State residents, especially property taxpayers, along with elected leaders, should send the leaders of these efforts a dozen roses for saving us the expense of having to reassign students or provide last-minute oversight to yet another failed attempt at education reform.
The three schools that planned to open next September were not selected by the federal government to receive startup funding. But that doesn’t mean they were unworthy. The popularity of charter schools, privately managed, publicly funded ventures, have gained a reputation for improving academic performance and students’ scores on standardized tests.
As usual, the News Journal abdicates its responsibility to its readers by glossing over a point about charters’ reputations for improving academic performance and students scores. First, a cursory google search on charter quality will reveal extreme conjecture on this point including a major study that suggests success of charters are almost exactly aligned with public traditional schools.
Further, the editorial board finds nothing about all three delaying their openings as possible evidence of a problem of any sort whatsoever. Apparently intellectual curiosity is not a requirement to be an editor at our states number one paywall (er, paper). Reading this, it’s no wonder the support junk science like VAM for teacher evaluation or the in progress failed/failing reforms of RTTT which get no space in their paper. Just weak handed editorials touting their own previous reporting and a glowing review of why three, READY TO GO, APPROVED BY THE STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION charters all backed out.
A shameful disservice to their readers and Delaware taxpayers.
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