You’ve heard the claims: charter schools take money and resources from public schools, have little accountability and don’t perform as well as their public school counterparts.
Following the logic, we would tend to believe that where charter schools and public schools are in close proximity to one another or share a building — a practice called co-location which is common in many large cities like New York where real estate is at a premium — the impacts would be even more adverse.
New research conducted by Professor Sarah Cordes of Temple University finds that’s not the case. In fact, the opposite is true. Cordes writes:
…that the introduction of charter schools within one mile of a TPS [traditional public school] increases the performance of TPS students on the order of 0.02 standard deviations (sds) in both math and English Language Arts (ELA). As predicted by theories of competition or information transfers, these effects increase with proximity to the charter school and are largest among student in co-located schools where performance increases by 0.09 sds in math and 0.06 sds in ELA. In addition retention decreases between 20-40 percent in TPSs located within 1 mile of a charter school. School level responses that might explain these positive spillovers included higher per PPE [per pupil expenditure] and changes in school practices such as higher academic expectations, student engagement, and levels of respect and cleanliness at the school, as reported on parent and teacher surveys.
The research by Cordes is the first peer-reviewed study on the subject and appears in the Journal of Education Finance and Policy. Cordes analyzed nearly 900,000 students in grades 3-5 who attended traditional public school in an attendance zone that included a charter school serving at least one of those grades between 1996 and 2010.
In an interview on the study for the Education web site The 74, Cordes said, Just the presence of an alternative does it. It doesn’t really matter how great the alternative is – it’s just the fact that that alternative is there, it’s in the building and people see it every day.
Is there a more powerful argument for competition and choice?
This study is proof that an ‘alternative’ to Neo-Liberal Capitalism aka Free Markets and Privatization of Public Money would create a better Economic system in the U.S.
Exactly why European countries have less disparity in wealth than the U.S. They allow for ‘alternative’ Political Parties and Fund ‘alternative’ Political Parties in a Democratic style system, while the U.S. locks out any other voice than the corrupt 2 Party system, has a ‘winner take all’ system of voting, and has become the arch anti-Revolutionaries that Dr. Martin Luther King so eloquently spoke about.
So, anything to say about the subject at hand, Scott? No? Yeah, I thought not.
Yeah Pinto, I stated that the ‘Subject at Hand’ was PROOF that ‘alternatives’ to the Status Quo would create a better system.
In your infant attempt to be a hit man against all who oppose your narrow mind and ideology you are blind to what others actually DO SAY.
Most people grow out of your potty mouth ignorance by adolescence.
Yep. Still nothing to say about the subject at hand; and still projecting your every fault onto me. Contrary to what seems to be your current favorite delusion, Scott, this isn’t CNN and this isn’t HuffPo and this isn’t the DNC. Unlike such far-left echo chambers, we deal with reality around here.
Oh poor, poor Pinto, the only time I go to CNN, HuffPo and DNC is to expose the lies and omissions of those Corporate liars.
Doing the same here Pinto.
The only delusional lying partisan between you and I is YOU. And you use Nationalism and ‘your brand’ of Fascist Religion as a club.
SHAMEFUL!
Scott, it’s pretty obvious to every last one of us here that you go to CNN, HuffPo, and the DNC to pick up all your leftard narratives.
You’ve done nothing but mindlessly spew their propaganda here.
The only delusional lying partisan between you and me is you; and you’ve done nothing but slam us for refusing to worship at your left-wing ideology’s altar since you got here.
You’re the one who ought to be ashamed of having no mind of your own but… well, it takes having a mind of your own to be ashamed of such things.
Neither CNN nor the DNC would ever suggest what I did in my comment above. They are both lying Corporate stooges like you Pinto.