Letters: The real world -- and charters

Re “When charter schools fail,” Opinion, Dec. 23

As a longtime elementary school teacher, I know that the single most important factor in a student’s success is the involvement of parents. The mere fact that a parent has taken the time to apply to a charter or magnet school means that those schools have students whose parents are at least paying attention to their children’s education.

Charter and magnet schools in effect skim the cream off the top of public schools. It’s unfair to fully attribute any success they might have to teaching methods.

If you put together a group of students whose parents are involved, that group is bound to perform better. Those who think differently are kidding themselves.

Nancy Cooper

Moorpark

Jed Wallace, the president and chief executive of the California Charter Schools Assn., praises the accomplishments of charter schools in the state while acknowledging that six have failed and will close.

And where will those students go? Likely back to traditional public schools.

Is that accountability in the charter world: cut and run? That’s the opposite of accountability.

I have nothing against charters except that they perpetuate the myth that our “failing schools” are the fault of our teachers and not because of more complicated and diverse factors.

Stan Brown

Victorville

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