Charter schools offer path to academic success for families in poverty
A study found charter students in poverty had stronger growth in reading and math compared to their peers in traditional public schools, especially minority students in poverty. But the Chicago Teachers Union wants to limit families’ options to enroll their students in charter schools.
The Chicago Teachers Union opposes schooling options benefitting students, especially those living in poverty.
A study by the Center for Research on Education Outcomes at Stanford University found charter school students outperformed their peers at traditional public schools in year-over-year learning gains.
Charter students in poverty, and especially minority students in poverty, experienced even greater academic gains. Charter schools offer hope to families seeking alternatives to traditional public schools, especially for families who cannot afford to send their children to a private school.
Education is an important steppingstone to a child’s future success, as workers with higher levels of education not only earn more but are also unemployed at far lower rates throughout the entire economic cycle.
Yet the Chicago Teachers Union wants to limit families’ options to enroll their students in charter schools even though these schools are where students in poverty are experiencing greater growth in learning.
Charter school students outpace peers in traditional public schools
Charter school students outperform those in schools they would have attended, according to the CREDO study. This is despite charter schools enrolling a “more challenging student population than their adjacent [traditional public school].”
The study observed year-over-year academic progress from 2015 to 2019 and reported the differences as “marginal days of additional (or fewer) days or learning.” Specifically, it found the typical reading and math performance of students in charter public schools nationwide outpaced that of students in the traditional public schools the charter school students would have otherwise attended.
The study found charter school students gained on average the equivalent of an additional 16 days of learning in reading and six days of learning in math than their peers in traditional public schools.
Charter school students in Illinois do even better, the study found.
Illinois was one of 18 states studied with significantly stronger growth in reading by charter students and one of 12 states with significantly stronger growth in math for charter students than for their traditional public school peers.
On average, Illinois charter students gained an additional 40 days in reading and an additional 48 days in math compared to their peers in traditional public schools.
Black and Hispanic students in poverty make large learning gains in charter schools
Charter school students in poverty nationwide had stronger growth in reading and math compared to their peers in traditional public schools, according to the study. Black and Hispanic students in poverty at charter schools experienced even greater academic growth than their peers in traditional public school compared to the difference between all charter school students and their peers.
Black students in poverty grew at an additional 37 days of learning in reading and 36 days in math when compared to their peers in traditional public schools. Hispanic students in poverty had similar growth, at 36 additional days of learning in reading and 30 days in math.
Chicago Teachers Union bars low-income students from education alternatives
CTU opposes schooling options that benefit low-income, Black and Hispanic students. The current CTU contract already includes a moratorium limiting the number of charter schools and enrollment, limiting the number of students able to benefit from charter schools’ innovative learning.
CTU’s demands for the new contract would further limit enrollment at charter schools and continue to deny access to Chicago students and families who want to take advantage of a different public school option than traditional public schools.
According to the study, “[Charter schools] move Black and Hispanic students and students in poverty ahead in their learning faster than if they enrolled in their local [traditional public school].” Yet CTU actively works to prevent the growth of charter schools and the number of students, including low-income and minority students, who can choose them.
CTU’s latest demands impose more limits on parents’ choices in choosing the education that is best for their children. For families in poverty, charter schools may be their child’s only lifeline to academic success.
If ratified in the new contract, “the total number of students enrolled by the 2027-28 school year will not exceed 100% of the total student enrollment capacity as of school year 2023-24,” compared to the 101% in the current contract.
Parents ought to have the opportunity to enroll their children in the schools that best fit their needs. Charter schools offer an alternative to traditional public schools, yet charter schools remain a free, public school option for Chicago families when allowed.
Chicago should expand access to public schooling options by eliminating the cap on the number of charter schools and charter school students – not kowtow to a teachers union that has a history of working against parents’ interests.