Time for charter schools

September 8th, 2008 at 03:01pm Wally Haas

This morning, members of the Rockford Charter Schools Initiative visited with members of the Editorial Board. We were outnumbered. There are a lot of people who are working diligently to bring a charter school here.

RCSI exists to “to facilitate the development and successful authorization of charter schools in Rockford.”

Charter schools are public schools and are open to anyone who wants to attend. In Chicago, they’ve been pretty successful. Illinois law caps the number of charter schools allowed in the state at 60. Most are in the Chicago area.

There are 7 downstate charter schools. Only 8 spots remain.

Charter schools will not cure all our educational ills, but they are another tool. Charter schools have been discussed in Rockford since the 1990s, but the effort hasn’t had much success. We’ve had a couple of different groups come to talk to us about the value of charters. Editorially, we supported the concept, but have been leery of the details.

The RCSI folks have been working with established charter school operators with track records.

Chuck Sweeny will have more about charter schools in his Tuesday column.

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