The number of charter schools is growing each year; the popularity increasing because of the declining success of traditional public schools that can be seen through the results of standardized testing. With charters increasing in popularity, President Obama used charter schools as a major political platform instead of reform of traditional schools to gain support from many democrats.
The first official charter school began in 1991 in the school named City Academy in St. Paul Minnesota with its initial purpose being providing students with the greatest prospect of succeeding (Shober, Manna, & Witte). The concept of charter schools is credited to educator Ray Budde. “Budde suggested that groups of teachers be given contracts or “charters” by their local school boards to explore new approaches” (Chen, 1990). Since the initiation of the first charter school, teachers, legislatures, and communities have questioned if they were segregating students and if charter school policies are ethical. Currently there are approximately 5,760 charter schools—about 6% of the nation’s 96,000 public schools (Zubrzycki, Cavanagn, & McNeil, 2013). …show more content…
Some supporters’ state that it is what is best for the students and therefore it is what we require. However, others might argue that segregation does not provide equal learning. People rally against charter schools due to the fear that funding and resources will be pulled away from their valued public school systems. Before the early 1980’s, charter schools were viewed negatively by the public because they were seen as schemes to allow white students a way to leave desegregated schools (Knaak & Knaak,