Nearly 100% of the students enrolled at the Charlotte public charter school I lead are economically disadvantaged and non-white. Many come from tough backgrounds — far tougher, I imagine, than most of the people reading this op-ed.
Their parents entrust their children’s education — their children’s future — to Sugar Creek Charter School because they choose to, not because they have to. Nothing is more empowering than a parent’s choice in a child’s schooling.
So when I read tired old lines like the “[charter school] experiment has been a wasteful failure,” my first reaction is: Try saying that to the kids at Sugar Creek Charter.
Say that to the Film & Journalism students taught by Ryan Henderson, the 2023 Charter School Teacher of the Year.
“I look at my own children, and I see my children in these children,” Mr. Henderson said in a public Q&A last year. “When I walk up and down these hallways, I see my people. I see an opportunity to help my people.”
Say that to the parents in our ZIP code, where the employment rate is 10 percentage points higher than the rest of the state but median income is 25% lower, and one-in-four live below the poverty line. Many see hope in Sugar Creek Charter’s mission: to eradicate intergenerational poverty by providing a rigorous education.
Say that to Sugar Creek Charter elementary schoolers, whose grade-level reading proficiency outperforms peer subgroups by double digits.
Maybe it’s easier to lob phrases like “wasteful failure” from behind the fence. I imagine it’d be much harder after sitting in on Mr. Henderson’s class, or after watching a guidance counselor go over college options with a mother who scraped by for 18 years so her boy could have a chance.
This — offering an excellent education that builds hope and opportunity — is the essence of public charter schools like the one I lead, but it’s not unique to charter schools. Many traditional public schools serve similar student populations, and they serve them well. I don’t see us as in some sort of competition. Like so many other charter leaders, I genuinely want those schools — and especially their students — to succeed.
After all, if we’re not rooting for parents and children to succeed, regardless of where they find that success, then what in the world are we doing as educators?
Sometimes a traditional public school is the best fit for a child. Other times, a nearby public charter school might be the right option. There are a lot of reasons why one or the other might be best — school culture, curricular strengths or emphasis, teaching style, and more.
The right person — and perhaps the only truly qualified person — to make that call is the parent. Parents should have options for where to send their children to school, and the more options the better.
Public charter schools are one of an array of options for North Carolina parents to consider. I’m comfortable with that. I would never presume to tell a mother or father that their child must attend a given school.
Forcing one option on a family doesn’t happen for preschools, and it doesn’t happen for universities. In both cases, families review the options available to them and select the one they think is best. Why should that freedom of choice exist for preschool and college but not K-12?
This National School Choice Week, I, for one, celebrate the diversity of public schooling options currently available to North Carolina parents. The 150,000 students enrolled at a charter school, and the 1.4 million students in a traditional public school, all represent families who want what’s best for them. Those families deserve a choice in the matter.