In response to Bob Gould’s letter about the cost to Northampton’s other public schools of public charter schools, I can say, “Yes, many people feel the same way.” But, as a person who was involved in setting up the area’s first charter school, it saddens me every time I hear or read that charter schools are the problem.
In fact, there are two reasons for that prevailing opinion. First, our state legislators have failed to adjust their funding formula to cover the costs to either public charter schools or typical public schools. Secondly, the underlying reason for establishing charter schools has never been recognized. Initially, charters were awarded to groups of educators, parents and the general public to establish schools that were free to use the very best educational approaches and then share what was learned with the typical schools.
The immediate and continuing anger about the funding formula has robbed the typical school students of new and better pedagogical practices and has forced charter school families to pay twice for their children’s education — once in municipal taxes and again to try to cover the enormous expense of running a school.
Phyllis Woolf
Northampton