Thank you for the recent articles regarding the public's views of charter school expansion. According to the opinion polls cited in the articles, the public is far more supportive of continuing to improve the public schools in each of our communities than it is in starting and paying for more charter schools.
It might be surprising to most to learn that while the Mayor of Indianapolis, Ball State University and many entrepreneurs across Indiana can sponsor charter schools and collect tax monies for their operation, your locally elected school board members have no such authority. Some charter schools have had strong success but many have failed to live up to the hype present at their beginning.
I continue to wonder why the Republican Party, of which I have been a registered voter for my adult life, seems to eschew centralization of power in Washington but so boldly embraces it at the state level. Personally, I trust my locally elected school board members to act in behalf of our local students' needs and interests. With that in mind, I am hopeful that legislation will be enacted in 2011 to give local school boards the same authority and parameters to open and to operate charter schools as it presently grants to others.
I am confident that, once empowered to do so, the outstanding principals and teachers in our local school systems would create exemplary charter schools where needed and that those charter schools would coordinate, cooperate and compliment public school programs already serving so many of our students well. If the governor and his legislative leaders wish to expand charter schools, how about giving the local leaders we elected in each Indiana community the opportunity and authority to accomplish that expansion?
