The Virginian Pilot
Charter school success
Letter to the Editor
03 July 2009
Re 'Charter schools face uphill climb in Virginia' (front page, June 29): Lauren Roth's report quotes a union spokeswoman claiming that most charters perform no better and are frequently worse than traditional public schools.This assertion is flatly contradicted by charters' performance in the nation's capital. Our public charter schools have given hope to some of D.C.'s most underserved children.
The nine in 10 D.C. charter students who are African American and the seven in 10 who are from low-income families are outperforming their traditional public school peers. Students in middle and high school are nearly twice as likely to be proficient in reading and math as their peers in the regular public schools. Public charter schools have half the rate of teen absenteeism as the city-run schools and high school graduation rates 24 percent higher than the regular public schools, and have 85 percent of their high-school-age students accepted to college.
No wonder President Obama, speaking in Norfolk, said: 'I called for a doubling of our investment in charter schools so that students and parents have choice within the public school system.'
Robert Cane
Washington, D.C.