Brent Bishop on Read With You Presents

Listen to the podcast here.

Brent Bishop is the principal and founder of a charter school. Attended California Baptist University, studied English and secondary Education, Masters and Teaching Credential.

A friend approached him with the idea of starting a charter school. After thinking about it, he started to work for a charter school while he put together a charter and a petition to start his own charter school.

What is a charter school? People think that they are somewhere between a public school and a private school.

Charter schools are publicly funded but they have a lot less red tape and regulations about how the school is operated. Think of a chain restaurant (traditional school district) vs. a mom and pop burger shop (charter school). We’re able to be a lot more creative with our curriculum, with our technology.

There are many different charter schools, focused on different things. If you are considering a charter school, you have to look at the focus of the school and make sure it’s a good fit.

It didn’t make sense to me that teachers are automatically kept on because of their seniority, regardless of the way they are teaching. It’s great for the employee, but it might be problematic. There’s not motivation to keep upping your game or be creative. Charter schools have more competitive natures because teachers are held to a higher standard.

The biggest benefit I’ve seen from charter school is that you get a different level of customer service. Charter schools are a lot more like a small business in that they have to make sure people are satisfied with the job they’re doing.

We’ve spent energy creating our school culture. The teachers want to get together and eat, and talk about the students and it creates a really positive atmosphere. We’re not teaching different standards than you would find at a traditional school, but the way that we teach them and the way that we work with our students and communicate with our parents is very much in line with that thinking.

Just because it’s a charter school doesn’t mean it’s a good fit for your student.

Find out about the school staff. Get as much information as you can through a school tour if possible.

Look at how learning is approached at that school.

There is a trend toward charter schools. Its important to make sure that it is going to work for your family.

The school system is what it is. It works for some and not for others. The way that we can make an impact in education is by allowing charter schools to grow and develop so that we can allow parents to have options to educate their students

One size does not fit all in education and the more options that are out there for students to choose from, the better off we’re going be.

If you’re not satisfied with the options available create your own.