Can't wait for the Charter Schools, you will have Teachers who love to teach jumping to these Charters. We have some of the best Teachers in the state right here in Morgan County who are so frustrated by the lazy you can't fire me cause i'm tenured attitude of some. There is a Second Grade Teacher here in Decatur at a very nice Elementary School who shows up in her nasty PJs and house shoes, gets to her class and lays her lazy head down and no one can seem to do anything about it. Yes she is tenured and lets any one who complains about her nasty attire and poor teaching habits of that fact. I'm not naming the school but I bet several readers know exactly who I am speaking of. The good Teachers here in Alabama deserve better and if it takes the Charter Schools to wake up the lazy do nothing ones then so be it. Our children in Alabama deserve better than what their getting, if you don't belive that then you don't care that we are very near the bottom of all other US States.

Myth 1: Charter schools are not public schools.

Truth: Charter schools are public schools.

Charter schools are public schools that accept all students who want to come. Every student that is eligible to attend a traditional school will be eligible to attend a charter school within that school district. Charter schools cannot charge tuition, teach religion, or have admission requirements.

Myth 2: Charter schools don’t work.

Truth: Done right, charter schools can work well to improve student performance. But if a charter school doesn’t meet stated expectations, that school will be closed.

Of course not every charter school performs well. Just like with traditional schools, sometimes even the best efforts to improve school performance fall short. The difference is charter schools are held accountable for their results. If they don’t meet expectations, charter schools are closed down. Poor-performing, chronically failing traditional schools can go on failing our children for years or decades.

The states with the most successful charter schools are those with strong accountability language allowing authorizers to close low-performing charter schools. That strong accountability language is clear in Alabama’s Education Options Act.

Two peer states with charter schools laws are Tennessee and Louisiana: 52% or 14 of the 27 charter schools assessed in Memphis, Nashville and Chattanooga demonstrated significant student learning growth versus their traditional public school peers.

In New Orleans, among 45 charter schools, 22 made significantly faster gains in reading, math or both when compared with traditional schools.

Children in Alabama’s underperforming schools deserve the educational options that children in Tennessee and Louisiana have.

** In both studies, some charters are left out because they aren’t old enough to have produced enough scores, so the results may actually be even better.

Myth 3: Charters undermine local control.

Truth: By giving power to parents, teachers and principals to run schools in a way that best meets the needs of students, charter schools represent the strongest form of local control in public education.

In Alabama, only local boards will have the ability to authorize charter schools, except in extremely low-performing school districts. Only parents will decide whether or not to enroll their child in a charter school. No child will be required to attend a charter school and no child will be excluded. The decision is left solely to the parents.

Myth 4: Charter schools will cost the state more money than traditional district schools.

Truth: Charter schools will receive the same amount of money that traditional district schools receive.

Every traditional school system receives a specific amount of money to educate a student (called the “per pupil allocation”). That money is intended to support the cost of educating that student. If a student chooses to go to a charter school, that charter school would receive that student’s per pupil allocation. The effect on the school system is the same as if that student had moved out of the school system or gone to a private school. The charter school receives exactly the same amount of money as the traditional school.

Myth 5: Republican lawmakers believe that charter schools are the only way to improve public education.

Truth: Republican lawmakers believe that we need a combination of strategies to address problems in Alabama’s education system.

Most Republicans believe strongly that there is no “silver bullet” solution to the problems in public education in Alabama. We need many different strategies to make sure all Alabama students are prepared for any future they choose, college or career. There is good work going on to address low-performing schools, including ARI, AMSTI and a commitment to give flexibility to all schools. Charter schools are an important piece of a larger, collaborative strategy intended to address educational inequity and chronic low performance.

Myth 6: Charter schools do not serve students with special needs.

Truth: Charter schools are open enrollment public schools required to meet the needs of all students.

Charter schools must serve the needs of all special education students who wish to attend. Alabama has the benefit of learning from other states’ mistakes and has strengthened the language around special needs charter school students to ensure that charter schools are held accountable for meeting the needs of special needs students. It’s worth noting that several charter schools around the country are focusing their models to serve specific populations of students, including students with Autism. Such charter schools provide choices for all parents, including parents of children with special needs.

Myth 7: Charter schools “cherry pick” their students.

Truth: Charters must be open to all students who wish to attend.

Every child who is eligible to attend a traditional school in a school system will be eligible to enroll in a charter school within that school system. If more students enroll than there are seats available, schools must conduct a random selection process to fill seats.

Myth 8: Alabama charter schools legislation is meant to enrich corporations by redirecting public money to for-profit charter school companies.

Truth: For-profit organizations will be expressly prohibited from chartering schools in Alabama.

Alabama’s Education Options Act specifically bars for-profit operators from managing charter schools. Only non-profit entities will be eligible to manage charter schools. It’s a sad, but predictable scare tactic to say that corporations want to come to Alabama and charter for-profit schools. Anyone who says that isn’t telling the truth.

Myth 9: Charter schools “deprofessionalize” teaching.

Truth: Charter schools honor the profession of teaching by providing classroom-level flexibility and autonomy.

A core tenet of charter schools is teacher autonomy. Charter schools embrace the notion that the teacher knows what’s best for the classroom. Charter schools allow and support teachers to tailor instruction and strategies to the needs of students. Without having to adhere to strict salary schedules or requirements, some charter schools have implemented creative professional growth ladders, supporting teachers towards instructional leadership and administrative positions with appropriate compensation and responsibilities.

Myth 10: Stanford University says charter schools are worse than district schools.

Truth: Stanford University produced a study in 2009 that concluded that some charter schools outperform district schools and some do not.

The CREDO study evaluated charter schools in 16 states. While this produced valuable information for crafting strong charter legislation, because charters exist in 41 states, the experience of charters in 25 states was not captured. In addition, the study concluded that in several of the states studied, low-income students and minority students performed significantly better in charter schools. Since the release of the study, there have been questions about the research methodology used, but ultimately, the study provides us valuable data about how to craft a strong charter bill and avoid the mistakes of other states. This report demonstrates the importance of how state laws address autonomy, accountability, and funding.

A teacher can be fired tenure or not if you go through the proper channels. Tenure does not save a teacher who is not doing their job. The tenure law was changed last year and if people would check into the law and what you can do it would alot better than just saying things that isn't true. Charter schools would leave alot of children that are in the poor rural areas. There would be alot children who wouldn't get a decent education because of charter schools. Put the money into the schools now and get what is needed to make things better. The schools are so underfunded now it is a problem. Many people doesn't have a clue what teachers and support have to go through. They just think they have it made when we don't. We can be fired at any given time.

Charter schools traditionally do NOT serve the same percentages of special needs students, nor do they serve the children whose parents lack interest and involvement in their children's education.

One would think Charter schools would show superior results, especially since they lack the accountability to federal mandates that other public schools endure. Yet, Charter schools do not perform better than other public schools.

And they certainly DO cost more money. If Decatur General was mandated to provide a sister hospital to compete with it, would anyone believe that it would not cost more money to have a second hospital, with another CEO, CFO and staff?

It's not a good bill for the AEA. It could be a good bill for the children of this State. Why are you afraid of Charter Schools? It's all about the kids anyway, not the the Teachers. Give it a try, could be better that this dismal system we are currently under.

If you can read this Republican BS, thank a wonderful public servant teacher.

Bubba loves the way Collins does stuff, not

@ JACKSON.....Suspect you had a bad teacher too....

"Their" shows ownership. "There" indicates a place or direction. "They're" is used in place of "They are".

I suspect you meant to say "Our children in Alabama deserve better than they're getting!"