Don't be fooled by public charter school deception

School choice is a hot topic these days. It’s really important to understand how to create an education system that provides choice while sticking to our values: that every Montana child deserves a high-quality education without having to pay through the nose for it.

For generations we have insufficiently funded public education and relied on hardworking and extremely caring educators to do the job without adequate support. Our school systems have barely been getting by, so how can they be agile or innovate? Every teacher I know wants to do what is best for every student in their classroom, but too often that feels like an impossible task given the scarcity of resources our schools constantly experience. A rapidly changing world means our schools have been asked to do more and more and more, but without additional support, and that’s a recipe for making the system fall apart. 

This is a real problem. And the answer to this problem is to fund public education at an adequate level to allow for change, for innovation, for strength in our schools.

But people who push the idea of so-called public charter schools want to take taxpayer money away from our public schools and send it to private schools. Simply sending public money to a private school does not make it a public school, but they’d like you to think that. The charter schools they support fall outside of public oversight and supervision. They can charge fees to students if they choose. They can deny services to any student for any reason including special education needs. Their school boards are not elected by the citizens of their communities, rather by a small group of people that are accountable to no one, and often surrogates of the out-of-state corporations that want to make money off Montana. There are no standards or assessments that they must meet for accreditation. They can hire anyone to teach without a need for certification, background checks or any other requirements that ensure our children are getting a good education and are safe from predators. Finally, they proudly suggest they can pay their teachers less and not provide benefits because the teachers want to be innovative. 

This builds a system where our students can be segregated by their parents’ income. Over time, our public schools end up as the poor schools, where the students' of families that cannot afford to pay fees to private schools go. Any students with special needs are also left behind at our poor schools because they cost more to educate. In states that use this charter-school model, the public schools struggle mightily.

We should not be sending our tax dollars to out-of-state for-profit education corporations when we have great people that are willing and ready to innovate in our public schools. The solution is to fund education in a way that respects all of our students, our teachers, our heritage and our values. Every student in Montana deserves to have every opportunity to succeed, and truly public education is how we make sure that happens. Let’s fund it, let’s innovate, let’s create choice in the schools we already have. Our state deserves better than to fall prey to outside forces who want to make a quick buck off our children.

Rep. Eric Matthews is a Democrat and public school teacher who represents Bozeman in the Montana Legislature.