There were some assertions and questions in the letter “Wolf cutting charter school lifeline” (June 11, TribLIVE) that warrant a response.
Public schools have greater costs per student than charters, and during covid, there were zero days to prepare. Existing deficits already had tightened budgets, and unlike charters, huge cash reserves cannot be held. Charters had to increase bandwidth usage, meanwhile districts had to pay to get streaming services and equipment to all students and staff.
Many “charter schools” are recordings. The flexibility to “learn whenever” makes their recorded nature indisputable. Replaying (or relicensing) a video series is not teaching in the same sense as a live person in any classroom and makes live questions impossible.
Charter classes often cover less material and/or skim over topics, providing less while receiving the same per child funding. Links “for more information” do not equate to taught materials; and “grading” is often automated scanning, not what real teachers do. Examples exist where folks submitted near gibberish and received passing or near-perfect grades.
A few good example charter schools does not excuse the thousands of poor quality ones that genuinely fail students while draining public school funds.
Ted Dewayne Rodgers
Downtown