Why Say NO

All across the nation, charter schools have proven to be a drain on the resources and quality of their states' public schools. Alabama's children deserve better than that. Here are just a few reasons to say no to charter schools in Alabama.

Charter Schools Drain Funding from Local Schools

Alabama's public schools are among the lowest funded in the entire nation. Charter schools would make the problem worse by draining money away from our local public schools. Every dollar spent on a new charter schools is a dollar taken from an existing public school. And charter schools would require new facilities and add operational and administrative costs, all taken directly from our already underfunded public schools. In fact, lawyers in other states have already gone to court to force local public schools to give even more of their funding to charter schools.

Charter Schools Compromise Teacher Quality

Alabama takes tremendous pride in the quality and professionalism of our teachers. But under recently proposed charter school legislation, not all charter school teachers would be required to be certified. In fact, only 75% of charter school employees would have to be certified, and charter schools would not be required to have a certified principal. Nothing is more important to our children's education than the quality of their teachers, and charter schools compromise teacher quality. This is not the time to lower education standards in Alabama. Our children deserve better.

Charter Schools are Plagued by Abuse, Corruption, & Failure

More than 600 of the 5,000 existing charter schools nationwide have been closed because of abuse, corruption, and failure. All across the country, investigations and exposes have uncovered administrative corruption, waste of taxpayer money, abuse, and widespread failure in the nation's charter schools. We do not need to introduce these problems into Alabama's improving school system, and we absolutely should not expose our children to the kinds of abuse and failure that have been uncovered in other states.

Charter Schools Perform Worse than Other Schools

Charter schools would not improve the quality of education for Alabama's children. In fact, charter schools nationwide actually perform worse, on average, than other public schools. The most respected study of charter schools was conducted by Stanford University in 2009. It found that only 17% of charter school students had higher academic gains than traditional public school students, 46% showed no difference, and 37% –more than one out of three– actually performed worse! By more than a 2-to-1 margin, traditional public schools performed better than charter schools.

Charter Schools Weaken Accountability, Standards, and Local Control

Charter schools are funded by public money –our tax dollars– but they are not subject to all the same standards and accountability that we demand from our local public schools. In fact, local school systems have no operational control over charter schools, making charter schools less accountable and less responsive to people in their local communities.

Charter Schools are Being Forced on Us by Federal Bureaucrats