Supporters of charter schools in Indiana are pushing education in the wrong direction.
That’s the conclusion that can be drawn from an analysis by Timothy P. Ehrgott, former president of a K-12 charter school In Indianapolis. The results of his research were published in the online edition of the conservative policy journal Indiana Policy Review, and state leaders who fall squarely into the conservative camp should take his views seriously.
As reported in a story by Bill Strother in Monday’s H-T, Ehrgott analyzed Indiana Department of Education data for the 2013-14 school year, comparing the proportion of charter schools with noncharter public schools that earned A’s, B’s, C’s, D’s or F’s last school year. Additional comparisons took into consideration factors such as poverty that place students into the at-risk category.
He found that noncharter public schools outperformed charters in almost every matchup. A larger percentage received A’s and a lower percentage failed, both in overall comparisons and when at-risk factors were matched.
Ehrgott also found that of all Hoosier charter schools in the DOE data, 33 received D or F grades, while only 22 earned an A or a B.
Further, he found that in overall comparisons of the numbers of A and F schools 53 percent of public schools earned A’s last year, while only 29 percent of taxpayer-supported charters independent of the public school system earned A’s.
His conclusions call into serious question the thinking of those who believe the state should expand charter schools — which generally is done by taking dollars away from comprehensive public school programs. Though he said he believes his own study is limited and should not be the end of the discussion, this former charter school champion believes Hoosiers deserve more in results for the money that’s going into charters.
He’s correct about that. Supporters of school choice have long portrayed the public schools as diminished places of learning. They’ve pushed charter schools as better schools.
Ehrgott’s analysis and conclusions show that’s simply not true in many cases.
This is not to say that all charter schools are bad or all public schools are good. And to be fair, those at the Statehouse pushing charter schools don’t say the reverse, either, that all charter schools are good and all public schools are bad. But too often that’s how their message comes through when it comes to their strategy on education and school funding.
Ehrgott has raised a big red flag about assumptions that charter schools will automatically be able to compete with public school programs. State lawmakers owe it to Hoosiers to be open and transparent about evaluating what taxpayers are getting for their dollars that are being funneled into charter schools. The results must outweigh the politics.