they certainly effect children but as everyone is individual the positivity or negativity will be exceptionally hard to objectively monitor ..

With the state our education is in today, it's best to try ANYTHING we can to improve our children's learning! I can't think of a house anywhere in the US where it wouldn't be a better choice than a school building for our children!!

what you all seem to ignore is that it is not the governments or charter schools responsibility to insure that your child is educated,I live in a state that public education is severeley underfunded but yet both my adult children are very well educated and have obtained Phd's it was not accomplished through charter or private schools it was accomplished by mom and dad taking and active interest in their educations and my ex wife having been a teacher in both private and public schools will tell you that in either situation that the children who did best in her classes were those whose parents took and active interest in their childs education the schools give your child a curriculam to sutudy it cannot force your child to learn that is up to you as a parent

Okay, first of all, liberals are not the ones who want to cut things like art and music. Those things get cut because conservatives like to take funding away from schools and when funding is short, electives are the first things to go. This is not done to "put kids in boxes" it is done because most people agree that having a strong foundation in math, science and English are essential. They are, but I think it's wrong when people act like arts and music are not essential. But peope are coming to understand this better. It was conservatives who began the whole "teaching to a test" thing by withholding funding to schools that did not do well on tests. My mother teaches inner city kids and feels like it is a huge achievement when one of her high school students goes from 3rd grade reading level to 5th grade. And it IS an achievement (heck, it's an achievement getting them to show up at all). But under No Child Left Behind my mother and her school were seen as "bad" because the students did not meet test requirements for their grade. So sometimes they didn't even get to keep teaching those kids who they'd helped and established relationships with, to hopefully eventually get them up their grade level, but that was never allowed to happen because the funding was withdrawn.

But no, funding is not the only answer. We also need innovative new ideas, like charter schools, that recognize that not all children learn the same way, and that is a good thing.

It really depends on the school district and the particular charter school.

If they impede the growth of public (Read that as liberal controlled) schools, that is just much better.

Wayne it's not quantity we or the children need it's quality.

How is the failing school system all the faults of the Liberals?

The school system sucks cause NO ONE WANTS TO put ANY MONEY INTO IT! That includes liberals, conservatives, democrats, republicans. People of the green party, libertarians, the constitution party and independents.

Our school system is like our Government a money pit with little results. In most cases it is a babby sitting service and does a poor job of that.

School should be run as a business year round. In most areas we no longer have the need for school kids to have 3 monthe off to help on the family farm. If school was run like a business and teachers evaluated on the success of their students (and not by teaching the test)things would start to improve. We need to cut at least in half the number of administrators and levels of supervision that take money out of the system and add nothing to education of the kids. The liberal agenda is promoting a welfare state. It has turned Sports and music into the only areas that teach success and individual achievement and they always want to cut those programs. The kids need to be excited about learning and chalanged not put in predetermined boxes or druged to make life eaiser for the teacher. As good as some teachers are others do not make the grade. You can not build good schools with bad teachers. Set goals they must achieve and reward those who do and eliminate the ones that do not. Since many teachers come out of the current school system they have not learned how to achieve or succeed and be paid for performance. The current system does not teach those values so what do you have, the blind leading the blind.

Thanks for the info Julia.
2 points,
#1 Charter schools WORK, they produce smart and talented people who go on to do good things.
#2 Law makers (liberals) try to pass laws to restrict charter schools or at least keep them small and force them to teach the same liberal philosophy of mediocrity and conformity as found in the traditional public schools.

Public Schools need to be beholden to the community they are in and there budgets should be as well. We would all be better off if the government returned to the role of regulator and consumer advocate instead of provider. I would personaly open a school if it were not for the nightmare of governmental restrictions and requirements. With the technology we have today there is no need for a forced public education at tax payer expense. We need competition not conformity. We need efficiency. My school district spends over 20,000 dollars per student per year, I have 4 kids in school, that is just shy of 1 million dollars to put them through 12 years. So why do I still need to send in tissues and pencils and sell magazines and donate to the teachers funds and have charity events? Our public schools have no accountability and make no distinction between teachers who are counting down the days till they collect their pensions and those that really care about the kids. A bad teacher can destroy a childs will to learn and if a child complains they are labled ADHD and put on drugs.