30 THE QUEENS COURIER • KIDS & EDUCATION • FEBRUARY 25, 2021 FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM
30 k TiHdE QsU E&EN Se CdOUuRIcERa • tFEiBoRUnARY 25, 2021 FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM
Photo via Getty Images
Here are some benefi ts of sending your child to an NYC charter school
BY JOE PANTORNO
editorial@qns.com
@QNS
Th roughout the course of the pandemic,
many New York City students and parents
have had to adjust to online learning while
school doors were shut. Some parents later
opted to send their child back to school
buildings, masked up and ready to learn.
Even though New York was able to fl atten
the curve initially, there still remains
the question of what school will look like
for the remainder of 2021 school year as
the vaccine becomes available. However,it
isn’t too early for parents to plan ahead for
next year and beyond when school doors
re-open.
Th e school choice movement has provided
parents in New York City and across
the United States with more options on
where to send their children.
While the only legitimate options in the
past were public, private and homeschooling,
charter schools have become a viable
and attractive option for a child’s education.
A charter school is an independently
operated public school that usually operates
under a contract with a government
agency or nonprofi t organization. It allows
the school to not have to follow a mandated
curriculum, thus designing their classrooms
and lessons to fi t individual students’
needs.
While the idea of charter schools has
been met with plenty of criticism, there are
overarching advantages of sending your
child to such an institution:
Adapting to challenges
Within today’s educational landscape
lies the growing challenge of properly
informing, preparing and developing students
who learn and grow under diff erent
circumstances.
Th ere are four ways children can properly
learn and retain the material of their
coursework: visual, auditory, reading/
writing and kinesthetic.
Charter schools can provide a perfect
match.
If your child is struggling with learning
disabilities that withhold them from
fl ourishing at public or private schools,
there are charter school options.
If your child is advanced and is not
being challenged enough in most group
settings, there are charter school options.
Specialization with no tuition
Charter schools provide the best of both
schooling worlds.
While they are independent, they
still must have licensed teachers; students
must take state-mandated tests;
and underperforming institutions can be
closed — much like most public and private
schools.
But the ability to tweak the curriculum
and off er specifi c courses that set it apart
from public schooling.
Th e best part? Parents won’t have to pay
tuition as they would in private school.
Charters are funded on tax dollars.
They outperform public schools
Looking at the data, New York City
charter schools are putting up better numbers
than public schools.
According to theNew York Department
of Education, public school students
grades 3-8 were 47 percent profi cient in
English Language Arts (ELA) and 46 percent
profi cient in math in 2019.
PerNYCCharterSchools.org, charter
schools in the city provided much higher
profi ciency numbers last year.
ELA profi ciency rates for students
grades 3-8 were at 57.3 percent while math
profi ciency rates were at 63.87 percent.
Th ose numbers result in more learning
gains, allowing students to learn more
material in the same amount of time as
public school curriculum allows.
Charter schools have
plenty of support
Parents’ schedules are already packed as
it is. Th eir wallets might not be overfl owing,
either. Th e last thing they need to do
is participate in fundraisers to get their
public school some extra money.
Charter schools don’t have that problem
as they are privately funded more
oft en than not, meaning parents won’t
have to donate more of their hard-earned
money to ensure their child gets a proper
education.
/WWW.QNS.COM
/WWW.QNS.COM
link
/PerNYCCharterSchools.org
link
