Charter/Private Schools
rap...@my-deja.com
I am writing from Alberta, Canada (Edmonton) and I have just listened to
the October 30/99 story on Charter Schools. The person speaking in
favour of these private, for-profit schools seems to be relying on the
fact that people should have a choice on where to send their children
for their education.
To a certain degree I can understand how this might seem attractive,
but, I can also tell you that such an experiment here In Alberta over
the past 5 years has been a total disaster!
These private schools aimed themselves at special interest groups such
as religious and language specific populations and at first were quite
sucessful. However, as time went by they found that they had a very
difficult time indeed keeping up with the public education system.
Without the support of tax money they found that teaching both the
required curriculum and their special course materials was just simply
too expensive and that they could not meet their costs through their
tuition fees alone. Almost without exception, all of these schools have
now closed or worked out ways to become a part of the public system once
again.
Canada is, perhaps, the most multi-cultural society in the 'western'
world. We encourage cultural diversity and are proud of the multitude of
cultures which thrive in this country. One of the ways we have found to
create a strong national identity within such a diverse population is to
have universal public education available to all Canadians.
I am not a Swede, but I hope to become one over the next year or so and
I would hate to think that the country I intend to call home is going to
make the same error as my current home.
The succes of both Canada and Sweden rests in large part on our
universal social programs - freely available to all. Our universal
education systems have made us (both countries) the envy of the rest of
the world by training highly educated populations and these public
schools have been and continue to be the best method of continuing that
training.
Charter schools are concerned with making a profit first and foremost.
How could it be any other way? If they do not make money they simply
stop functioning. That means teachers, librarians, support staff and
administrators being paid less than their public school counter-parts
(based on our experiences here) which means that far from offering
a better education, Charter schools can only attract less qualified and
less experienced staff.
It is a wonderful idea at first sight - who wouldn't want their children
educated in a group that shared their beliefs or culture? Unfortunately
it simply doesn't work.
My advice? DON'T DO IT!
I would be happy to answer any questions anyone might have or to try to
find the answers you are looking for if I don't know. In the mean time,
I like the down-load service and wish there was a real-time live
broadcast available too!
Ron
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Before you buy.