Times have changed, and the education system is changing with it. The question is whether that change is justified. Legislators in California are proposing bills that are aimed at limiting and making it easier to shut down charter schools across the state. These legislators are pushing to pass these bills, and deny the freedom of school choice to all Californians.
The controversy surrounding charter schools has been a hot topic of discussion for awhile, but only recently has significant anti-charter school legislation been pushed. Many are in favor of these extremely constraining bills, which have predictably seen a surge of backlash from charter schools around the state.
Supporters of the legislation claim that many charter schools go unchecked, and tend to have lower academic scoring than public schools. However, charter schools regularly outperform public schools while offering many different academic opportunities for students who would otherwise be impacted by the limitations of public schools. Charter schools also allow for more academic creativity within their curriculums, which are not bound by common core standards.
If these bills are passed, new charter schools can be easily denied by the state, as well as lose their ability to appeal to being denied. It will also be much easier to shut down these schools, and school boards are allowed to use simple reasoning to do so. There are about 1,300 charter schools across the state of California, which is now the imposed limit on the number of charter schools. Each is now at great risk of being shut down, with very little pushback from state officials. Republican lawmakers will work hard to ensure creative freedom and school choice are upheld for all Californians.
