In response to all the gushing accolades for charter schools (“Charter school law a chance to try new things,” June 30), here are some statistics.

A recent study has shown that only 17 percent of charter schools outperform similar public schools while around a third are worse.

Want to take a chance with your child, parents?

It is true that statistics do show that as an entire group, U.S. public school children score behind many countries on standardized testing.

When these statistics are analyzed completely, however, they show that in every socio-economic range, U.S. children score at or near the top for that range.

So, kids from the most well-off families score similarly to well-off kids from other countries, and U.S. kids from the lowest economic range score similarly to children in the same range in other countries.

The difference is that in our country about 20 percent of school children live in poverty, while in the higher-scoring countries the rate is close to 5 percent.

We do need to address the learning/achievement skills of the lowest third of our school children. But there is not a “crisis” in education in our country and it does not require a major change in our education system to address this need.

In the school district in which I work, here is a list of the supports available to students: the three Rs, after-school study for grades 3-12, art, music, sports teams, many extracurricular activities, Title I for math and reading, special education, specialized programs for autistic and developmentally delayed kids, alternative education for high school students, vocational school and out-of-district placement for those kids who need it.

This is in a small, rural town. I don’t think other districts are much different.

 

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