The recent hullaballoo over closing the American International School of Utah has been entertaining, if not terribly informative. Critics assail charters closing as a problem, as “gambling with children.” By contrast, they argue, at least district schools don’t “vanish.” Such criticisms simply fail to understand the much greater risk in allowing failing schools to persist. Precisely because we can and do close a failing charter school, the risk of persistent failure goes down.
The shortcomings in public education are part of the fabric of our lives. We may be scandalized when a teacher is caught engaging in inappropriate behavior with a student, but no one is surprised.