Public School Closures & Charter Schools

By Rhys Hedges

One of the earliest memories I have of California’s abysmal public school budget affecting my life was when the elementary school I went to was shut down. The school was Meadows Elementary School, and it was closed due to declining enrollment throughout the district, which affected the amount of funding the district received. It was closed alongside one other school, to the dismay of the parents and community members who had ties to the schools. However, over the summer before the school was set to close, some parents petitioned to reopen the school as a charter school, a movement that succeeded.

Looking back, I am grateful my schooling wasn’t disrupted by needing to move to a different school, but I have also recently learned a lot about the ways in which charter schools can be harmful for communities. When I returned to non-charter public school for middle school and high school, I noticed a marked decline in the quality of my education; The teachers at my charter school had more freedom and support, allowing them to give me a more personalized education. I noticed many more lunch and after school programs at my charter school, ones that were specifically tailored to foster art and technology knowledge, than at any public school I went to. My charter elementary school was more technologically advanced than the middle and high schools I attended - in fact, the school was renamed to MATES (Meadows Arts and Technology Elementary School). This renaming is a tactic many charter schools use to mark the school as innovative, different, and better than public school alternatives, to the detriment of those public schools.

Despite the differences between the charter and non-charter public schools I attended, I am grateful for all the opportunities I have been able to take advantage of throughout my K-14 career. My parents always saw the importance of education, and worked hard to support me despite roadblocks and difficulties. Counselors, teachers, and professors have made a huge impact on my life because of the support they provided me, but they don’t get that support themselves. For example, I worked at a public school while I was in community college. I witnessed first-hand the struggles of one of my coworkers, a brilliant teacher and coach, who ended up leaving teaching because she couldn’t afford to raise her kids on a teacher’s salary. Every school should receive the resources and funding that most charter schools get, and schools shouldn’t have to close because of a lack of that funding.