Perhaps I’m missing something, but based on the article and KIPP’s website, I don’t see a downside. St. Louis gets free, high quality schools that are overseen by a university. 1,500 students get a great education and a real leg up in life. Sounds good to me.

KIPP, welcome to St. Louis!

What’s not to like about this program? Great opportunity for 1500 pupils to become actual students. (A former teacher, a Holy Cross priest, used to differentiate between a “pupil” vs a “student”. A “pupil”, he said, occupied a desk, while a “student” was an attentive and active classroom participant.) Thanks to Wash U for taking the initiative. Can we look to SLU and Harris-Stowe, Fontbonne and Webster to follow?

Sounds great! Too bad I don’t have any kids, nor do I plan to have any either.

Too bad Edwards quit too….he couldn’t have won anyway. Think he’ll run as Veep with Obama?

#3: Robsmyth. Edwards probably wouldn’t be a bad choice, but I wonder if the Governor of Kansas, Kathleen Sebieius, might not be a more magical VP-mate for Obama?

Where do charter schools fit into the constellation of education? Is it easier to initiate a new system than fixing the public school system? Would adopting a “charter school system” doom our public school system to failure and abandonment?

It would seem that a “new and improved” set of schools would draw the best and the brightest, and leave the rest in squalor. Who would choose to give their children an inferior education?

I hope to send my children to a parochial school, but I’m still concerned about the fate of the public school system as a resident of the City of St. Louis.

Hi, I’m a public school advocate and blogger in San Francisco who has followed KIPP schools closely with a skeptical eye.

Here’s a blog post giving some information about KIPP schools, addressing their sky-high attrition and other issues.

http://www.sfschools.org/2007/02/where-have-all-kippsters-gone.html

When I think of charter schools, I think of the charter school official woman who got one of my email addresses, and thinking I was a pal, proceeded talking about an intestinal problem she had on a plane on the way to a school conference. It was quite funny the detail she went into. Then a bit later one of the heads of regional charter schools used that same address to send emails to all the members about some nasty infighting issue. It was so petty what they were arguing about and this went on for weeks. Like 12 year olds. Finally I sent him a nice note telling him I wasn’t who he thought I was, but by then, I had all kinds of inside info about their group. He was appropriately snitty like one of the worst teachers I ever knew. I picture him as a physically small, nerdy man working with as many women as he was raised with. Frustrations still in place. LOL
Folks need educational choices, but I would hate to see the public school system ignored. And once the university system takes control, will money be more important than educational issues like it is in most university systems today? They accept more money from special interests now, and have no problem with dumbing down classes to attract more students. Parents sure have more things to think about now. Anything that can really help STL schools is good. When I think of all the accomplished folks who have come out of this city, I know there just have to be more promising people in this city who need a good education to help them do something great.

Anoman et al- the link Caroline provides is very interesting.

I reviewed the website. Do I sense even a hint of a suggestion that we dilute the program to cater to students who are not equipped to attend the KIPP schools? Defeats the purpose of the program, doesn’t it? For those who can’t succeed in the KIPP school, let them go elsewhere. But for those who can succeed in the KIPP school, let it be available to them for their benefit and future successes–Asian, African-American, European, or whatever!

Let’s not forget that Yale and Harvard, Wash U, Rice, U of I Urbana and a big clump of other institutions out there cater to a more advanced student, without any need to apologize.

I also read through the Blog that was listed. I fail to see how statistics on one charter school, in the absence of data on the public school system, is meaningful in any way.

I did some research and the most negative report I could find (funded by an anti charter group) said that the performance of the students was no better than those at government run public schools. Other studies have found that the charter students actually do better.

California bloggers and people with an ax to grind aside, lets not forget some basic facts pertaining to St. Louis. Our school system is failing, and the children are being left behind. A charter school is not a voucher program, it’s a public school. The students don’t pay tuition, all they have to do to get in is try hard. If they want to go back to a City/State run school, they are free to do so. The biggest difference between a charter system and a government run system is the government has no bureaucratic control over a charter school. Student performance, however, is closely watched.

I say let them try. The STL Public school system is in bad shape, if a charter public school can help the children then I’m all for it.

PS -Rob #3– That you know of!!