Hamilton County's newest charter school finds early success — here's why

Tuesday, February 18th, 2014, Times Free Press, by Kevin Hardy - Three years ago, Marcia Griffin went door to door in the inner city, meeting with dozens of parents to pitch her idea for a new charter school in Chattanooga. She quibbled with the Hamilton County Board of Education for approval and finally opened her elementary school in the Eastgate Town Center, between a call center and a nightclub.

Now, the Chattanooga Charter School of Excellence has a waiting list. After only a couple of years, its test scores are starting to rival those of the public school system. And the school is looking to expand with the addition of a new middle school campus, either at Eastgate or another location. (link)

It is time that those who are tired of accepting that poor kids can't learn, demand that Boards of Education and teachers unions get out of the way and let innovation and competition show that all kids can learn.  It has already been shown.  There are examples of  charter schools working miracles where regular public schools failed. We need to get bureaucrats and special interest and radical egalitarians who prefer equal failure to unequal excellence, out of the way and embrace charter schools and magnet schools and education scholarships.  While we are at it, we should allow for-profit charter schools also. "Profit" is not a dirty word. What works can be duplicated and institutionalized with a business model driven by profit. If each charter is managed as an isolated independent non-profit then lessons must be leaned over and over and it is more difficult to duplicate what works.

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