EVANS: Charter Schools
I am an ardent supporter of charter schools; in fact, I was able to help secure the passage of the Pennsylvania Charter School Law in 1997 which led to the development of 56 charter schools in the city. This includes my own creation in 1998 of the West Oak Lane Charter School.
I also opened the doors to the New Media Technology Charter School in 2004 with the Black Alliance for Educational Options and the Lotus Academy. Each and every parent in Philadelphia deserves quality education choices for their children, and charter schools help provide this choice.
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Evans deserves credit for bringing charter schools to the state. He has truly created educational opportunities where there were few before. Nevertheless, the big problem with charter schools is the lottery system for admission that means these schools cannot be neighborhood based. In Center City we have more toddlers per acre than any suburb. However, once the children reach school age, the parents leave because the schools are not responsive to the interests of professionals and have high expectations of school quality.
The rules governing charter schools have emphasized creating opportunities for low income and working class families. These families deserve all of the help they can get to educate their children if we are to have an upwardly mobile society. However, these rules also mean that middle-class families do not really benefit from the charters to any great degree. Thus, the current setup does not help retain middle-class taxpayers in the city. The rules have to change to allow charters to be defined by a neighborhood, while reserving slots for children from anywhere in the city.
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