What You Need to Know About Charter Schools

As a parent concerned about education, Rob wanted his kids to go where they would thrive. the solution for his family was a charter school focused on technology. In this episode, we discuss the idea of school choice, who opposes it, and the economics facing charters.

Listen to the podcast here:

About Rob

He studied economics, enjoyed social economics, end of college he went to police academy and became a homicide detective.

As he moved forward in his career he chose entrepreneurship, and became involved in community and education, specifically with charter schools.

Charter Schools

In the county where Rob lives in Florida, there is a big disparity between the haves and have nots.

The middle class with a high value on education were having a hard time because the public schools weren't what they wanted.

The charter school where Rob's kids attend is a tech school.

They have a large amount of tech in the school and each child gets an iPad.

Everything is done digitally.

In elementary school, there is a focus on hands-on to complement the tech.

Teachers at charters have a lot more flexibility.

Fro example, teachers teaching forensic science to learn scientific principles played Clue and the kids solved the crime with science.

Charter Schools Economically

School Choice becomes an issue.

The entire principal of a charter school is decentralization.

School districts lose control (and money).

Funding and political influence--teachers unions oppose.

Most teachers want to do the job the way they want to do it--they want to be creative and have autonomy.

When you have a charter school, it's lottery based.

The biggest boundary is there has to be able to have some kind of parental involvement.

Charter schools allow us to self segregate into people who care about education and people who don't.

Charters cater to highly motivated students and parents.