Charter schools overall are a good idea. They can offer an escape for children trapped in substandard traditional public schools. They can spur traditional schools to improve. If they are poorly operated, they can be easily shut down.
Charter schools are only worth having, however, if they can provide a much better education. Anything less than that makes the effort pointless, and they can do harm by taking funding and good students away from schools that may be struggling with too little of each.
Charter schools were sold on the promise that they would be held even more accountable than their traditional public school counterparts. If a charter school didn’t produce, it would have its charter and taxpayer funding yanked.
A recent report from a legislative watchdog group questions whether the board that oversees Mississippi’s charter schools is keeping that promise. Last April, that board gave a three-year extension to a charter school, Midtown Public Charter School in Jackson, that failed to get above a “D” accountability grade in its first five years of existence.
Of course there are excuses, as there always are with mediocrity. But charter schools are not supposed to be allowed to make excuses.
The state now has seven charter schools. Any that don’t provide a verifiable quality education should be told to close their doors.
