123 School Work

Charter Schools Should Not Exclude Students

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  Charter Schools Wrong to Exclude Students
  Charter schools should not be able to exclude at risk and special needs students because of the following reasons: (1) Public education is a human right and should be available to all people; (2) Charter schools were originally intended to work along side the public system in helping these students; (3) Charter schools use public funds to operate and should have to follow the same admissions rules.
  First, the Canadian Teachers Federation (2000) tells us that the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers both state, "public education is a human right in this country that should be available to all people regardless of ethnicity, culture, race, gender, or sexual orientation. These organizations argue that public education is the backbone of democracy, and therefore, must be tuition free and available to all students" (1). It is unfair for these schools to call themselves public schools and benefit from all the funding they receive as a result if they are not going to conduct themselves in the same manner. By law, charter schools are not supposed to screen students or exclude special needs students. But from looking at states such as Arizona where fewer than 4% of the 7,000 enrolled charter students are special students, one can clearly see that they are not complying with the laws (1). The Canadian Teachers Federation (2000) reports
  that one Arizona charter school principal was even quoted as saying: "We tell parents that the public schools provide the special education. We can't be set up for everything" (1). As long as these schools are going to be classified as public schools, they should be forced to accept all students that apply. If they do not start being fairer with their admissions, then they should be classified as private schools and denied funding...