Pro / Con on Appleton Charter Schools

Tim Maylander:

As a former charter school student, I can attest to how valuable they can be to a child's education. When they're properly planned, a charter school can give a student exactly what he or she needs to succeed later on in life. I feel I owe many of my present successes to my charter school upbringing.

However, we need to cut back on the number of educational options in Wisconsin, specifically in the Fox Valley.

In the last decade, there has been an explosion of charter schools in Appleton alone. Programs like the Classical Charter School, Magellan Charter School, Tesla Engineering School and the Renaissance School for the Arts are examples of the numerous alternative schooling opportunities now available to parents and their children.

Despite my earlier comments about the good qualities of charter schools, the increasing number of programs isn't beneficial to anyone, especially the student. It is, after all, possible to have too much of a good thing.

Take the charter school I participated in, for example. When most kids would have gone to middle school, my parents opted to send me to the Magellan program. It allowed gifted students to take classes at a high school setting with high school teachers at an accelerated pace.

Not only did the Magellan students learn a great deal more about traditional subjects then they would have normally, they were also exposed to a world of new opportunities at Appleton West, where the program was located. Students in the program were allowed to join the debate team as well as many other character-building activities and organizations.

Magellan was exactly what the students needed — accelerated learning in a high school locale with endless possibilities for development.

Sara Hetland:

A visit to a public school classroom will reveal the immense range of learning styles among students.

There's the boy sitting seemingly idle in the back corner. He says little, but his test scores indicate he's among the intellectually gifted.

In the middle of the room is the student who can play anything he wishes on the piano, but simply can't comprehend long division.

There's the student who finds it difficult to learn from a lecture, but she makes great academic strides while doing a hands-on project.

Charter schools allow for more academic freedom. They're publicly funded schools that have been released from some of the regulations that apply to other public schools, and instead are accountable for producing certain results written in the school's charter.

Charter schools can avoid many of the procedural obstacles that distract other schools' resources and energy away from the goal of education. Diversity in learning styles, a sense of community and potential benefits to public schools make expanding charter schools in the Fox Valley a good decision.

One reason why charter schools should be expanded is to address the diversity in learning styles.

Posted by Jim Zellmer at September 8, 2007 12:00 AM
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