Monday, January 25, 2010

Charter School Demand Surges, Outstrips Supply

Mackinac Center for Public Policy -- "For many parents, public charter schools are seen as an escape from underperforming or unsafe schools. Legislative limits on the growth of charters and subsequent waiting lists force parents to submit their children into a lottery to determine if they'll get to exercise their choice for a better educational option. For these parents, pure chance is their only ticket out of failing schools.

Below is a clip of a public charter school lottery in Boston for the
Match Charter School. Although it ignores the thousands of students who "lost" the lottery, the video shows what educational opportunity looks like for thousands of parents striving to obtain a better learning environment for their children."



1 Comments:

At 1/25/2010 3:15 PM, Blogger Shawn said...

Seireg discusses this in a Reason paper - Addition and Subtraction.

While I think a little bit of his paper is scare-tactic-ish (particularly his comments on a 10,000 sq. ft. minimum lot size requirement--I've done a quick sketch, and you really would be hard pressed to do much more than a very very tiny school on a 10k sq. ft. lot, especially if you're planning on parking any cars on there), the overall point is definitely good.

I understand the rationale behind zoning laws, but they really suck at allowing innovative land uses, and city councils aren't very keen on providing variances, etc., without a lot of work (money spent) on land planning and schmoozing.

 

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