Most local public school districts see charter schools as a threat and don’t want them in their backyard.
When Mississippi in an earlier version of its charter school law gave local school districts veto power over them, the state didn’t create any charters.
The U.S. Department of Education is considering replicating this same flawed model by altering the rules on the funding it awards to charter schools. The change would require a charter school to secure the collaboration of the traditional school district in order to qualify for the money.
As Amanda J.A. Johnson, a charter school operator in Clarksdale, suggests, such a requirement would give a local school district the power to starve a charter school before it got off the ground.
The federal government should not stifle educational competition but welcome it. If a charter school is not good, it will close. But if it is good, it will prod the traditional school it competes with for students to get better.
