Ring in middle-class charters

Kudos for former TFA teacher and KIPP TEAM teacher, Siobhan Sheils, for this NY Daily News Op Ed calling for charter schools in middle class areas as well.  Here's the Education Gadfly on it:

Explain this: Two public schools, one in the South Bronx and one in Harlem, academically outperform  most of their counterparts in much wealthier Park Slope, Brooklyn. Stumped?  The answer, of course, is that the two schools in question, KIPP Academy and Harlem Village Academy, are charter schools -- and damn good ones at that. Some Park Slope parents figured this out and are now asking, "Why shouldn't we have charter schools, too?" (Dan Rubenstein and Luyen Chou, two educators, recently  wrote a proposal to start Brooklyn Prospect Charter School, which they hope to  open in fall 2009.) It's a good question. Although charters won their fame for  creating alternatives to broken inner-city schools, there's no reason to keep  them out of wealthier areas, where schools are certainly not immune from stagnation and bureaucracy. Furthermore, as Teach For America alumnus Siobhan Sheils points out in a New York Daily News op-ed, more public-school choice will prevent middle-class parents from fleeing to private schools, and thus help curb the "white flight" that has hurt urban districts. Quality schools for all kids--a fine idea.

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Ring in middle-class charters

BY SIOBHAN SHEILS
 November 5th 2007
http://www.nydailynews.com/opinions/2007/11/05/2007-11-05_ring_in_middleclass_charters.html

Be Our Guest

Leafy Park Slope, Brooklyn, full of strollers, dogs and pricey stores, is the kind of place where you'd expect to find quality public schools. So it might surprise you to learn that kids in District 15, which includes Park Slope and surrounding neighborhoods, might be better served by schools in places like the South Bronx or Harlem.