The Charlotte area continues to be a magnet for would-be charter-school operators, a new round of pre-applications shows.
People interested in seeking charters for 2014-15 had to file a letter of intent by Jan. 4. The state got 154 letters, with 33 seeking charters in Mecklenburg County and 17 in surrounding counties (seven in Cabarrus, five in Union, three in Iredell and two in Gaston). You can get the list at the N.C. Office of Charter Schools web site; detailed applications are due March 1.
The letters don't mean all 50 schools will open in 2014. An advisory board and the state Board of Education review business and educational plans before deciding which proposals will be approved for charters, which grant public money to schools run by independent nonprofit boards. Last year there were 59 applications, with 25 getting the nod to open in 2013-14.
Charter schools tend to cluster around cities, which offer a bigger pool of prospective students. But the Charlotte region is drawing interest out of proportion to its population. Wake County, for instance, got only 12 letters of intent.
Eddie Goodall of Union County, who runs the N.C. Public Charter Schools Association and hopes to open a charter school in Mecklenburg or Cabarrus county in 2014, says he isn't sure why this area has so much pull. The former state senator does note that his group has been marketing the opportunities to operators and families. The association plans to hold a charter fair in Charlotte Jan. 30; check the web site for details.
Wednesday, January 9, 2013
Charlotte-area charter surge continues
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12 comments:
good news for charlotte area residents and their children. We need more affordable options and people are just tired of the constant antics and popular education fad du jour that CMS keeps serving up.
We need more charter schools that focus on providing a quality education to students as it has become obvious CMS mission has become more focused on playing games that demean teachers and short change students with one sided " Courageous Conversations".
Don't be fooled folks. There are many that will fight any charter schools opening up or expanding that will serve the suburban students in Mecklenburg County. I saw it last year with the state school board and a Mr. Tate that squashed several applications that would give choices to the middle class families trapped presently. BTW, the largest growing group of home schoolers are black middle class.
I wish we could get proactive enough and get Governor McCrory to replace most of this hapless bunch (state school board).
Have you seen the staff of new teachers coming into CMS in the last 5 years? Even the historically "good schools" in lilly land have alot of inexperienced teachers. I would run to a Charter School if they built any close to my home in a heartbeat.
maybe these new charter schools will be able to teach cursive.
I know a teacher who is retiring end of next month and has a part time job lined up at a charter school. You'd be blessed to have her for a teacher. Her experience, skills and work ethic has intmidated her last several principals and she has decided to go where she would be appreciated.
What does learning cursive have to do with education? I have two high performing high school students, both in CMS, and neither of them ever write in cursive. I fail to see a correlation between HOW one writes and the quality of that writing.
Dear "texasgirl"-
I am also a Texan and your comment was just embarassing...Just say "don't mess with it" the next time you consider offering up such a vacuous statement. Sigh.
Texas girl here. My point, apparently missed by a couple of posters, is this story has recently been in the news. Educators are debating the pros and cons of teaching cursive. CMS has discontinued teaching cursive and maybe these new charter schools will have more freedom to choose what is being taught in addition to required state curriculum. CMS has also practically done away with teaching grammar and spelling, so I'm sure you're ok with that too.
Let me add something here to what texas girl has pointed out. CMS as well as many other public schools has discontinued teaching cursive writing. While her point is that schools can change what they teach for what seems liek a good reason, no one wil llisten to those that would point out the consequences to such. Another example of this is the new Common Core curriculum. It has almost eliminated the study of great literature in return for reading, hold your breath here, government documents, probably the worse example of writing for clarity and proper use of the English language.
So as to the other points of not teaching cursive writing starting to come out of other reasearch on how children learn, we are seeing the effect of how a child holds a pencil and learns to form letters and words linked to their brain and inteeligence developemtn. It is more apparent in high poverty kids. Second, writing skills and reading skills are more closely linked than thought before. And lastly I would add, learning the discipline and art of graceful writing is a true introduction to talent development.
My kids already know how to curse.
We don't need a charter school for that.
9:39, in my years of experience with CMS, since the 80"s, I would entrust my child to one of these newby teachers anyday if the principal stayed away from them.
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