Charters Held to a Higher Standard

The New York Times reports that Ohio’s attorney general is trying to close some of the state’s charter schools, and charter school supporters in other states are starting to worry.

It doesn’t seem fair to impose all this scrutiny on charter schools without doing anything about the failing traditional public schools that spurred the charter movement in the first place. The article notes that 43 percent of traditional public schools in Ohio’s cities are failing, too. Where is the effort to close them? Charters are trying to reverse a trend of academic failure that has persisted for decades. They won’t all be able to do that overnight. The point is made by one priceless quote from the article about the Ohio attorney general’s plan:

“This is like suing the American Cancer Society just because they haven’t yet cured cancer."

Fortunately for Missourians who like charter schools, the disaster in the St. Louis Public Schools makes even the least successful charters look like John Burroughs by comparison.