Farias downplayed the fact that not all charter schools are living up to their promise of doing a better job than public schools.
“The reality is charter schools are still in their infancy as well,” Farias said. “School districts are over 100 years old and still failing our kids.”
Beyond performance issues, panelists said an important feature of charter schools is that they provide for educational autonomy not found in public schools and foster more of a sense of community ownership.
Panelist Monique Davis, executive director of the El Sol Science and Arts Academy in Santa Ana, California, one of the report’s featured schools, said parents who turn to charter schools aren’t concerned with the policy debate surrounding the schools but rather the fact that the schools offer wraparound and other services, such as adult basic education courses to better enable parents to help their children with schoolwork and the like.
“What they know is that they can come to this school and there are a variety of services available to them and, most importantly, that their kids are gong to leave the school with grade level proficiency and prepared to make the move into school and whatever they want to do next, which could be college or whatever else,” Davis said.
